242 SWALLOWS. 



little difficulty in accounting for it, rapid as these birds are in 

 motion, and fitted by their length of wing for long-continued 

 flight. Notwithstanding which, many naturalists formerly, 

 and some few still, maintain that they do not desert us entirely, 

 but become dormant during the cold weather, or, what is still 

 more extraordinary, plunge into water, and remain buried in 

 the mud at the bottom, till the warmth of Spring revives 

 them, when they awaken from their slumbers and again 

 become tenants of the air. 



The Swallow. 



We will not positively assert that Swallows can, under any 

 circumstances, continue through the Winter in a dormant 

 state, and still less, that they can exist at the bottom of 

 water; but as instances well attested, without assignable 

 reasons for deceiving, are abundant, coming too from different 

 and distant quarters, they at all events merit some notice ; 

 and that future observers may, by being made acquainted 

 with a few of the instances given, be enabled to clear up all 

 doubts, or explain what may still remain to some a mystery, 

 we will give those cases which have come to our knowledge, 

 on the most respectable authority. 



