264 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



Upsal, that the submersion of swallows was received 

 in Sweden as an acknowledged fact. The late Peter 

 Collinson, in his correspondence with Linnaeus, " re- 

 peatedly urged him to bring the matter to a decisive 

 issue by proposing some questions, and pointing out 

 an easy method of having them answered. As Lin- 

 naeus did not take any notice of these questions for a 

 long while, although he was strongly called upon at 

 different times by his acute correspondent, we may 

 fairly infer that he was unable to give any satisfac- 

 tory answer ; and his constant evasion of the experi- 

 mental proofs is an indication of his being unpre- 

 pared to support what he had asserted by any thing- 

 more than the common authorities*." 



Klein, the rival of Linnseus, also supports the doc- 

 trine, and tells us that the mother of the Countess of 

 Lehndorf saw a bundle of swallows brought from out 

 of the lake Fische Haff, near Pilaw, which when 

 brought to the fire flew about. Klein examined a 

 considerable number of other cases of swallows found 

 in lakes and often under ice by fishermen, who swore 

 positively to the facts ; but he always failed in pro- 

 curing recent, much less ocular, testimony *f\ 



Of a somewhat older date, Aldrovand tells us, " P. 

 A. Talentini, a nobleman of Cremona, highly worthy 

 of credit, informed me upon the testimony of a Jesuit 

 presbyter, that the swallows in Silesia, Bohemia, 

 Poland, Moravia, arid the neighbouring countries, 

 every where precipitated themselves into cisterns and 

 wells J;" but if this were so common everywhere, all 

 dispute could be readily settled by examining the 

 bottom of any given well or cistern during winter. 



The most recent authority which we have met with 

 upon the subject is that of Baron Cuvier, who asserts 

 of the bank-swallow (Hirundo riparia, PLINY), as 



* Reeves on Torpidity, p. 47. 

 t Hist, Avium, p. 200-5. J Ornithol. ii. 297. 



