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96 Oil the Retreat of Swallotvs in Winter 



YllL A Letter on the Retreat of Swalloius, and the Torpid 



State of certain Animals, in Winter. From SEYERYN J, 



BEUYN, Esq 



SIR, 



Brwjmivijlce, Ulster County, April Sd, 1700. 



AM sensible, it has long been an inquiry, where, or into 

 what places, swallows retreat during the winter ; and that 

 there have been various conjectures on this subject The 

 account, which Mr. Hathorn, one of the members of Con- 

 gress, has given you of their being found in hollow trees in 

 the winter season, is a fact to which I can fully testify. In 

 the year 1787, about the 20th of March, I was passing with 

 some hunters through the country near Neverslnk creek, 

 m the great Ilardenber^ Patent ; where I observed a large' 

 hollow chesnut tree to have been broken off, near the 

 ground by the force of the wind. It burst open by falling, 



«o as to expose the hollow a considerable' way along the 



trimk. I judged the tree to be about ten feet in cireumfer- 

 W ^'^t.f'^^^'o -t-d tWrty or forty feet from 



a pea to be more than four inches thick. In the hollow 

 of th. re were an >nrmense nun^ber of swallows, amount- 



mTn V wt ™' r ."""' *°"™^^- '^^y -- all dead ; 



Tke re.,orofTi: ^t ■ ™^' ''^'''"'''^ f™"" ^eir bodies. 



" of the.r ben,g all dead, and not in a torpid 



state, 



on moving or 



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