132 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



said that a half-starved nestling cuckoo, fallen 

 from some nest in a whin-bush, was comfort- 

 ably hybernating like a dormouse ? " The bishop 

 of Norwich, in his Familiar History of Birds, 

 records an instance of about forty cuckoos 

 being congregated in a garden, in the county 

 of Down, from the 18th to the 22nd of July, 

 and, Avith the exception of two, which were 

 smaller than the rest, taking their departure at 

 that time. These were, no doubt, all young 

 birds of the year, and it is probable that the 

 two smallest were never able to follow the 

 others, but remained to perish. Of such a 

 character were the benumbed, denuded birds, 

 which have been occasionally found in hollow 

 trees, or the thickest part of furze bushes; 

 whither they had crept for shelter, and which 

 have been noticed by Willoughby, Bewick, 

 and others." 



We now pass to reptiles and amphibia. In 

 the colder and temperate regions of the globe, 

 all terrestrial reptiles, and all amphibia, (as far 

 as the habits of the latter are known,) pass the 

 rigorous season of the year in a state of torpid 

 hybernation. Those who have kept the com- 

 mon European tortoise in a garden must have 

 observed how, as autumn advances, the animal 

 excavates a sort of hole, or burrow, in the 

 ground, in an oblique direction, into which it 

 iinally retires, and thus buried passes into a 

 state of lethargy. It has been ascertained that 

 during hybernation digestion entirely ceases ; 

 but, generally speaking, the tortoise refuses to 



