302 BRITISH BIRDS. 



strong desire of being convinced of the truth re- 

 specting their going into a state of torpidity. 

 Accordingly, the next season, having taken some 

 more birds, he put them into the cage, and 

 in every respect pursued the same methods as 

 with the last; but to guard their feet from the 

 bad effects of the damp and cold, he covered the 

 perches with flannel, and had the pleasure to 

 observe, that the birds throve extremely well; they 

 sung their song through the winter, and soon 

 after Christmas began to moult, which they got 

 through without any difficulty, and lived three or 

 four years, regularly moulting every year at the 

 usual time. On the renewal of their feathers, it 

 appeared, that their tails were forked exactly the 

 same as in those birds which return hither in the 

 spring, and in every respect their appearance was 

 the same. These birds, says Mr. Pearson, were 

 exhibited to the Society for Promoting Natural 

 History, on the i-ith day of February, 1786, at the 

 time they were in a deep moult, during a severe 

 frost, when the snow was on the ground. Minutes 

 of this circumstance were entered in the books of 

 the society. These birds died at last from neglect, 

 during a long illness which Mr. Pearson had : they 

 died in the summer. Mr. P. concludes his very 

 interesting account in these words: "January 20, 

 1797, I have now in my house, No. 21, Great New- 

 port-street, Long- Acre, four Swallows in moult, in 

 as perfect health as any birds ever appeared to be 

 when moulting." 



These experiments have since been amply con- 

 firmed by the observations of M. Natterer, of 

 Vienna, as stated by M. Temminck in his Manuel 



