414 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



officer, I had the pleasure of informing the gentle- 

 men present, th:'t this machine, so new to them, 

 •was almost as common in America as carts and 

 ])lows. Their plows in use in England are quite 

 different from ours, nearly twice as long, and much 

 heavier. Their plowing is perfect, as straight as a 

 line, and of uniform depth, such plowing as we can- 

 not do in the United States. Whether the differ- 

 ence is in the plow or plowman, or in the land, I am 

 not certain yet, but I think much is due to the skill 

 of the plowman, who all his life holds the plow and 

 does no other work. But I have inadvertently 

 stepped over to England, when I ought to be writ- 

 ing of France. 



Hoping to see you and my native land before 

 the leaves fall, I remain, yours truly, 



H. F. French. 



For the New England Farmer. 



SWALLOWS. 



BY S, 



F O AV L E E . 



I have seen of late, in several communications of 

 your correspondents, passages relating to the sud- 

 den death of barn and chimney swallows, with the 

 inquiry, what was the probable cause of their des- 

 truction. I have been induced to communicate to 

 the readers of the Farmer my thoughts upon the 

 {subject of the inquiry; the more readily, as 1 think 

 we shall discover, when we come to examine the 

 habits of these birds, that they are remarkable for 

 becoming, under some circumstances, torpid ; thus 

 rendering the belief in their brumal retreat the less 

 difficult to some of my ornithological friends. Eve- 

 ry close observer of the swallow tribe, cannot fail to 

 observe how susceptible they are to cold, and its 

 tendency in producing torpidity. 



I have caught the white bellied swallow, after a 

 cold frosty morning in spring, completely benumbed 

 by cold, with its pulsations as low and as torpid as 

 a dormouse. In cold rain storms in spring, for 

 days together, the chimney swallows will doze and 

 sleep in chimneys, in a torpid state, and when they 

 can be viewed from below, they will be seen with 

 their claws clinging to the sides of the flue, their 

 bodies braced, with their tails presenting a most 

 singular appearance, when thus tilted back against 

 the wall, fast asleep, awaiting the clearing up of the 

 storm. And M'e may here observe that collected 

 as they often are in considerable numbers in chim- 

 neys, they are frequently destroyed by a fire being 

 kindled in the stove or furnace below them. The 

 causes, inducing sleep in the swallows, are at work 

 producing a chilly sensation in the inmates of the 

 nouse, causing them to light their fires. 



The present season has been remarkable for its 

 coolness and frequent rains. Such seasons, I have 

 always noticed, are peculiarly destructive to the 

 swallow tribe. Martins, within my recollection, 

 have suffered most severely from cold, backward 

 springs. They suffer, likewise, from want of food 

 — it being insects — which most abound, and are 

 found abroad only in warm seasons, and bright 

 days. The same may be said of the barn swallow, 

 to a less extent, and it may be the principal cause 

 of their death this season. 



One of the reasons given for disbelieving in the 



brumal retreat of the swallow is, that they have 

 been dissected, and nothing discovered different 

 from other birds, as to the organs of respiration. 

 But we have seen that they are differently consti- 

 tuted from most birds, inasmuch as cold produces 

 torpidity and sleep. This state renders them in- 

 sensible to a desire for insect food, when it cannot 

 be obtained, for the insectiverous tribes themselves 

 are as quiet as the swallow family, and are, like 

 them, waiting for mild and pleasant weather to be 

 abroad in the fields. The distinguished and ven- 

 erable traveller and naturalist, Humboldt, when in 

 his eightieth year, says the circumstance of the 

 sand martin sometimes burying itself in a morass, 

 is a phenomenon, which seems not to admit of a 

 doubt. And he continues, the winter sleep of the 

 swallow in question, (the Hirundo riparia,) is not 

 supposed to belong to the entire species, but only 

 to have been observed in some individuals. 



It should be borne in mind, that no believer in 

 the brumal retreat (at least in the present day,) sup- 

 poses that all of them pass the winter in sleep. 

 But on the contrary, they believe that they migrate 

 for the most part in autumn, like other birds. May 

 not those swallows, that have been discovered in a 

 torpid state be the weak birds of late broods, that 

 are incapable of migrating, and being overtaken by 

 the frosts of autumn, seek a shelter from the cold, 

 and pass into that state of insensibility, to which 

 we see they are so prone ? We sometimes no- 

 tice in some insects, a want of vigor, which renders 

 them incapable of leaving the nest, with the rest of 

 the swarm, for the purpose of completing their 

 transformation, and are content with performing it 

 where they are, as best they may. Thus it is that 

 nature provides for the necessities of her weak off- 

 spring. 



It is common for some persons to enumerate our 

 three distinguished ornithologists in the list of un- 

 believers in the torpidity of swallows. Mr. Wil- 

 son, we all know, treated the subject always with 

 ridicule, and so did his patron, William Bertram, 

 before him. Mr. Nuttall had his doubts of the 

 truth of our belief, judging from what he says in 

 his manual. Mr. Audubon, who must be consid- 

 ered our greatest ornithologist, certainly, at one pe- 

 riod of his life, when I was personally acquainted 

 with him, had not made up his mind upon the sub- 

 ject, and wished to obtain more light before ex- 

 pressing an opinion. This was in 1832, but what 

 may have been his belief upon this vexed question 

 before his death, I do not know. He no where, to 

 my knov/ledge, in his writings, expressed a decided 

 unbelief in the brumal retreat of the swallow. Our 

 unbelieving friends, I am persuaded, will not exhib- 

 it so much torpidity as to bring forward an array of 

 names of persons, distinguished as travellers and 

 naturalists, as our opponents, and thus vainly at- 

 tempt to submerge us in mud and water, with the 

 poor swallows. We could beat them at that game, 

 and produce two names to their one of all those 

 who have expressed an opinion upon the subject. 



A great deal is sometimes said by some persons, 

 about the improbability of swallows, under any cir 

 cumstances, or in any situation, passing the winter 

 in a torj)id state. But natural history, as well as 

 civil history, is to be credited, not always upon the 

 degree of probability which seems to be attached 

 to its teachings, but upon facts, founded upon the 

 testimony of witnesses of noted veracity. And 

 there is no fact more credibly established in natu- 



