DO SWALLOWS HIBERNATE? 169 



ature, and certainly does not vary so much as to start, by 

 its added warmth, the life-pulses of swallows that for five 

 or six long months have ceased to beat ; and why should 

 these unfortunates remain thus beneath chilled and often 

 ice-locked waters, when, in the mellow sunshine above, 

 other and wiser swallows of their kind flit and twitter as 

 of yore, having happily chosen migration rather than 

 submergence ? 



But the testimony on this point is too explicit to war- 

 rant the belief that these witnesses could have been in 

 error. To show how readily people can be mistaken, let 

 me state a case : 



A. B. has testified on oath as follows : " Early in 

 April, 1836, as I was passing on foot down the Borden- 

 town road, near the drawbridge, I heard a loud hissing in 

 the bushes at my left, and, turning my head, saw a large, 

 checkered, black and white snake. It held its head well 

 up, and darted its tongue at me. I was a good deal 

 frightened and turned and ran, as I had heard of hoop- 

 snakes, and found I was chased by this snake and that it 

 was one. Luckily, I was running down hill, and covered 

 the ground pretty lively. Near the bridge, I jumped 

 behind a cedar-tree, and the snake passed me. It had its 

 tail in its mouth, and rolled along like a child's hoop, 

 only a great deal faster. It turned off at the creek, and 

 rolled into Crosswicks Creek, and then uncoiled, and 

 swam like any other snake." 



Now, in this statement, made in good faith by a con- 

 scientious man, there is a curious admixture of truth and 

 misconception. Mr. A. B. admits that he has heard of 

 hoop-snakes, and, as they are reputed to be more deadly 

 than veritable rattle-snakes or copper-heads, it is very 

 natural that he should see, or simply think he sees, a 

 snake take its tail in its mouth and roll, hoop-like, down 



