C. II. Merrl((ni — l)!r<Jf< of Connect init. 



20 



ii|) willi tlu' lU'l ill tlu' grrat pond at I>i<IU(rk,n ; in tin. yi-n- 1711^ i,,. 

 got two Swallows iwnw anotlicr part of tlu' i)on(l, and took tlu'iii home 

 (they all being caught in liis presence) ; after an liour'n si)iice they 

 revived all in a warm room, fluttered about, and died three hours 

 after. Wily., Amtnwn B'Onhe says, that having had the estate 

 KlcsJvOw in farm, he had seen nine Sicallotcs brought up in the net 

 from under the ice, all which he took into a warm room, where he 

 distinctly observed how they gradually revived; but a few hours 

 after they all died. Another time his people got likewise some /Sioal- 

 lows in a net, but he ordered them again to be thrown into the water. 

 bthli/, Andrew liutta, a master fisherman, at Oletsko, made affi- 

 davit, 1747, that 22 years ago, two /Swallows were taken up, by 

 him, in a net, under the ice, and being brought into a warm room 

 they flew about. Qthly, Jacob Kosiulo, a master fisherman, at 

 /S^rac/at^e/i, made affidavit, that in 1736, he brought u\) in winter, in 

 a net, from under the ice of the lake at liaski, a seemingly dead 

 Sioallow, which revived in half an hour's time, in a wai-m room, and 

 he saw, a quarter of an hour after, the bird gi'ow weaker, and soon 

 after dying, ^thly, I can reckon myself among the eye-witnesses 

 of ih\'S> paradoxon of natural history. In the year 1735, being a 

 little boy, I saw several Swallows brought in winter by fishermen, 

 from the river Vistida, to my father's house, where two of them were 

 brought into a warm room, revived, and flew about. I saw them 

 several times settling on the warm stove (which the Northern pations 

 have in their rooms) and I recollect well that the same foi-eiioon they 



died, and I had them, when dead, in my hand In .January 



[1754] the lake oH Lyhshau, belonging to these Estates, being covered 

 Avith ice, I ordered the fishermen to fish therein, and in my presence 

 several Swallows were taken; which the fishermen threw in again ; 

 but one I took u}) myself, brought it home, which was five miles troni 

 thence, and it revived, but died about an hour after its reviving. 



These are facts, attested by peo{)le of the highest (piality It 



is therefore highly probable, or rather incontestibly true, that Swal- 

 lov)S retire in the Northern countries during winter, into the water, 

 and stay there in a torpid state, till the return of warmth revives 

 them again in spring."* 



Not many years ago 1 brought upon myself the everlasting 

 odium of an old lady, in the northern part of New York State, 

 by presuming to question her statement that she had seen. " with 



* Peter Kalm's Travels into North America, vol. ii, pp. 140-14. 1771. 



