SWALLOWS. 41 



TVe will not positively assert that Swallows can, 

 under any circumstances, continue through the 

 Winter in a dormant state, and still less, that they 

 can exist at the bottom of water, but as instances 

 well attested,- without assignable reasons for deceiv- 

 ing, are abundant, coming too from different and 

 distant quarters, they at all events merit some notice; 

 and that future observers may, by being made ac- 

 quainted with a few of the instances given, be enabled 

 to clear up all doubts, or explain what may still 

 remain to some a mystery, we will give those cases 

 which have come to our knowledge, on the most 

 respectable authority. 



On the 16th of November, 1826, a gentleman 

 residing near Loch Awe, in Scotland, having occasion 

 to examine an out-house, used as a cart-shed, saw an 

 unusual appearance upon one of the rafters, which 

 crossed and supported the thatched roof. Upon 

 mounting a ladder, he found, to his astonishment, 

 that this was a group of Chimney-Swallows (Hirundo 

 rustica}) which had taken their Winter quarters in 

 this exposed situation. The group consisted of five, 

 completely torpid; and none of the tribe to which 

 they belonged had been seen for five or six weeks 

 previously; he took them in his hand as they lay 

 closely and coldly huddled together, and conveyed 

 them to his house, in order to exhibit them as ob- 

 jects of curiosity to the other members of his family. 

 For some time they remained to all appearance life- 

 less; but the temperature of the apartment into 

 which they were carried being considerably raised, 

 by a good turf fire, they gradually evinced symptoms 

 of reanimation; and in less than a quarter of an 



