to NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Migrations of the swallow and cuckoo. 



The migrations of the swallow and the cuckoo, 

 have been particularly noticed by every writer 

 on ornithology ; and various opinions have been 

 formed respecting their disappearance, and the 

 state in which they subsist during that interval. 

 Some naturalists have imagined that these birds 

 do not migrate at the end of autumn, but that 

 they lie in a torpid state concealed in banks, in 

 the hollows of decayed trees, among the ruins of 

 old buildings, and other sequestered places, until 

 the return of summer. Some have even asserted 

 that they cling together by the feet, and thus 

 great numbers being conglomerated in a mass, 

 they sink themselves to the bottoms of rivers or 

 pools, where they lie concealed under the water. 

 No great depth of reasoning, however, is required 

 to prove the physical impossibility of this hypo- 

 thesis. On the one hand it is certain that swal- 

 lows have been found in winter in a torpid state; 

 but these instances seldom occur, and conse- 

 quently will not support the inference, that if any 

 individuals survive the winter in that situation, 

 the whole species is preserved in the same manner. 

 Several instances of cuckoos having been found 

 in a similar state, might be adduced, as well as 

 of swallows, house martins, &c. having been seen 

 flying about long after the general migration had 

 taken place; all which circumstances leave no 

 room to doubt that several young birds which 

 have been late hatched, not finding themselves 

 strong enough to undertake a long voyage, re- 



