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CASSELLS BOOK OF BIRDS. 



The power of flight possessed by these birds is truly wonderful, and the distance to which they 

 can travel through the air, without the possibility of rest, is almost incredible. Nevertheless, at one 

 time, and that not many years ago, it was believed that on the approach of cold weather Swallows 

 plunged to the bottom of some pond, in the mud of which they passed the winter, and revived again 

 in spring. So long ago as the year 1849 this subject was brought before the Academy of Sciences at 

 Stockholm, and the following document, which, coming from the quarter it did, was by some looked 

 upon as an irrefragable proof of the truth of this strange story, was submitted to and gravely discussed 



THE thread-tailed SWALLOW (Cecropis-Uromitiis-filifera). 



by that learned body : — " Near to the estate of Kafvelas, in the province of West Gothland, there is a 

 little lake called Djpasjon, where on several occasions in the winter time, when the ice-net has been 

 drawn, stelnade, or stiffened Swallows, have been brought up in my presence. My father, then 

 Inspector at Kafvelas, who was also present, directed me to take some of them home, and place 

 them in a chair at some little distance from the fire. This I did, and, to my great astonishment, I 

 soon observed the birds to draw their heads from under their wings, where they had been previously 

 placed, and in a few moments to fly about the room. But as this was not the proper season for their 

 quickening, they lived but a short time afterwards." 



