SWALLOW. 137 



quantities' having been taken out of the cleft of a rock in 

 the cliff near Hastings. 



Mr. Selby, on this subject, says *as follows: 'Let it be 

 admitted that a few individuals may, at different times, have 

 been found in a half-dead or benumbed state, under the 

 eaves of houses, or in similar places of retreat, (the natural 

 consequence of remaining in an uncongenial climate,) such 

 will, doubtless, have been voung birds of late hatchings, not 

 able to undergo the fatigue of so long a flight, or old birds 

 reduced by sickness and other casualties to a similar condi- 

 tion; and all of which, I should be strongly inclined to 

 believe, die before the expiration of winter. As a proof that 

 the circumstances may happen, I adduce two instances of 

 having found this bird in the months of December and 

 February, both of which individuals appeared to have recently 

 died.' This reasoning is, however, defective in all its parts. 

 First, one Swallow does not make a winter. Secondly, if it 

 be granted, as he seems to have done, that these birds had 

 continued in a torpid state up to the end of the year, the 

 continuation of that state would be much more likely than 

 the destruction of it without reason. Thirdly, their being 

 found in this benumbed state is anything but 'the natural 

 consequence of remaining in an uncongenial climate.' The 

 natural consequence of so doing would be the death of the 

 bird, not its becoming torpid only and remaining so for 

 months; but when this unnatural state is entered upon, 

 universal experience in all other similar cases shews that 

 nothing breaks it off but the genial warmth of the succeeding 

 year. Mr. Selby also adds as another reason, the fact that 

 February is the time of the moult, which he thinks is totally 

 at variance with the idea of this bird going into such a 

 torpid state as has been represented, and sufficient to prove 

 the improbability or impossibility of such an event. But this 

 is somewhat like arguing in a circle; for the difficulty being 

 got over of going into torpidity, and the ordinary course of 

 nature which would require moulting at an otherwise fixed 

 time, being suspended, the suspension or postponement of the 

 latter follows as a necessary sequence. Before departing, large 

 flocks of Swallows roost together in such places as osier beds, 

 and the brushwood that fringes some lake or stream, and 

 hence has arisen the notion that they retire under water for 

 the winter. 



The following singular circumstance has just been conimu- 



