36 Zbc Warbler 



numbers in the Delaware, Schuylkill and James Rivers. In a single night 

 their clamorous voices are heard in tens of thousands along those reedy 

 shores where but the day before not one could be found. Here they re- 

 main till about the middle of October, when all of a sudden their well known 

 cackle ceases, and in the places where the day before many hundreds were 

 seen not a solitary one remains. They seem so heavy of flight that they 

 are often taken by hand. Hence the oft repeated inquiry whence cometh 

 and whither goeth the Rail or Sora. Many believe that they are scarcely 

 capable of flight, and must find some retreat in hollow banks, or perhaps, 

 the ice or mud. The truth is, these birds migrate altogether by night, and 

 like the Woodcock and other kindred species, fly admirably ill the dark. 

 They breed very far North. An intelligent Indian trader informed me that 

 he had found great numbers of their nests whilst hunting for the eggs of 

 the Wild Goose {Anser canadensis) along the reedy marshes of the north- 

 ern lakes. It is not generally known that when these birds leave the Middle 

 States they appear in the rice fields and marshes of Carolina, where they 

 remain a short time before they migrate still farther South, and in the spring 

 again visit us as they are passing on to their northern breeding places- 

 There is then nothing- in the migration of the Rail that cannot be account- 

 ed for 011 the principles of nature. 



All the absurd theories with regard to the hibernation of Swallows have 

 originated from the habits of a few species inhabiting our country and Eu- 

 rope. The Chimney Swallow {Hirundo rustled) resembling our Barn Swal- 

 low (Hirundo rufri) in everything but its habit of building in chimneys, so 

 perfectly that they cannot be distinguished from each other, and the Bank 

 Swallow (Hirundo riparia), which is also a native of our country, and our 

 Chimney Swallow (Cypselsus pclasgius), have occasionally been found in 

 holes on the banks of rivers, in the hollows of decayed trees or in the re- 

 cesses of old buildings or chimneys, clinging together in great numbers all 

 in a torpid state. Hence it was asserted that these were their winter re- 

 treats, and that here they remained in a state of torpidity from the cold of 

 autumn to the sunny days of spring. This doctrine has been espoused by a 

 number of intelligent naturalists of Europe from the amiable and observing 

 White of Selburne, even to the great Cuvier, who makes use of the follow- 

 ing language : " Some birds retire into remote places, to some desert cave, 

 some savage rock or ancient fortress." He evidently could have had no op- 

 portunities for a satisfactory examination. Dr. Good has also asserted of 

 the Chaffinch of Sweden {Fringilla coelebs) that many of the males indulge 

 in a profound sleep in Sweden while the females migrate to Holland towards 

 the winter and duly return to them in the spring. From careful dissections 

 (the details of which it is unnecessary to give here) it has been ascertained 

 that from the internal structure of Swallows (and the same may be said of 



