INTRODUCTION xxxiii 



in his Anatomy of Melancholy, I cannot do better than quote 

 a few lines from that curious treasure-house of undigested 

 learning : * 



" And if I could (I would) observe what becomes of swallows, 

 storks, cranes, cuckowes, nightingales, redstarts, and many 

 other kinds of singing birds, water-fowles, hawkes, etc. Some 

 of them are only scene in summer, some in winter ; some are 

 observed in the snow, and at no other times : each have their 

 seasons. In winter not a bird is in Muscovie to bee found, 

 but at the spring in an instant the woods and hedges are full 

 of them, saith Herbastein : how comes it to pass ? Doe they 

 sleepe in winter, like Gesner's Alpine mice ; or doe they lie hid 

 (as Olaus affirmes) in the bottome of lakes and rivers, spiritum 

 continentes: often so found by fisJiermen in Poland and Scandia, 

 two together, mouth to mouth, wing to wing , and when the 

 spring comes they revive againe, or if they bee brought into a 

 stove, or to the fireside. ... Or lye they hid in caves, rockes, 

 and hollow trees, as most thinke, in deepe tin-mines or sea- 

 cliffes, as Mr. Carew gives out ? I conclude of them all, for 

 my part, as Munster doth of cranes and storkes : whence they 

 come, whither they go, incompertum adhuc, as yet we know 

 not." 



The Carew here quoted wrote a survey of Cornwall, of 

 which the first edition was published in 1602. As is well 

 known, swallows and martins do occasionally pass the winter 

 in warm places on the Cornish coast; and this fact Carew 

 reports without committing himself to hibernation. But 

 even he was caught by Olaus' wonderful tales, as will be seen 

 in the following passage : 2 



" In the west parts of Cornwall, during the winter season, 

 swallows are found sitting in old deep tin-works, and holes of 

 the sea cliffes ; but touching their lurking-places, Olaus Magnus 

 rnaketh a far stronger report ; for he saith that in the north 

 parts of the world, as summer weareth out, they clap mouth 

 to mouth, wing to wing, and leg to leg, and so after a sweet 

 singing fall down into great lakes or pools amongst the caves, 

 from which whence at the next spring they receive a new 



1 First edition (1628), p. 243. 



2 Page 85 of the reprint edited by Lord de Dunstanville in i8n. 

 C 



