THE LITERATURE OP THIS SUBJECT 389 



1877. Argyix, Duke of. Hibernation of Birds < Nature, xv. no. 390, Apr. 

 19, 1877, pp. 527, 528. 



Transmits letter from Sir John McNeill, who says : — " I have stated and I now 

 repeat that I have seen swallows in large numbers hibernating." Then he gives 

 the partionlars. 



1877. McLeod, R. R. Correspondence. <C Meld and Forest, iii. no. 2, Aug. 

 1877, pp. 35, 36. 



A propos of some pleasantries lately published in l^ature against the idea that 

 birds hibernate, the writer, whom the well-known Mr. G. A. Boardman, of Calais, 

 Me., represents to me aa a proper person, sends the editor the following, in 

 substance : — 



Mr. John T. GosB, " a gentleman of intelligence and veracity ' *, informed him 

 that when lumbering in the woods in New Branswlck, in winter, with a great 

 depth of snow, his cook, who was digging out a spring of black mud, came upon 

 " two bank Swallows apparently dead, but dry ". These birds were handled by 

 several men full of curiosity j they soon began to revive in the warmth of the 

 camp, and after a little while one of them flew out of the smoke-hole and fell 

 npon the snow ; the other was reburled in the mud by the cook. 



The writer encloses a letter from A. S. Freeman, of Presque Isle, detailing 

 circumstances of finding birds, said to be Bank Swallows (but which may have 

 been Swifts), "frozen stiff" in the hollow of a felled maple-tree ; some of which 

 birds, taken to a warm room, revived and flew about, but were found dead next 

 morning. " They were of a brownish color with white or light bellies, such as 

 we flnd around holes in the sand banks in the summer." 



1877. i'THE Reviewer of Palm^n's Work." Tlie "Hibernation" of 

 Birds < Nature, xvi. no. 395, May 24, 1877, p. 61. 



£egards the incident Sir John McNeill relates as " miraculous ", without Im- 

 pugning the relator's veracity ; dismisses Herr Kohweder's account to the 

 " limbo of legends ", and still appears pleased with himself— O forturuitos 

 nvmiwml 



1877. Spalding, D. A. The First Swallow at Mentou [France] < Nature, 

 XV. no. 388, Apr. 5, 1877, p. 488. 



1877. Spalding, D. A. The Swallows and Cnckoo at Menton [France] 

 <_ Nature, xv. no. 390, Apr. 19, 1877, p. 528. 



1877. " X." The Hibernation of Swallows < Nature, xvi. no. 394, May 17, 

 1877, p. 43. 



Cites note in Ornlthologisches Centralblatt of May 1, 1877, from J. Kohweder, 

 who certifies to the competency and trustworthiness of the observer who com- 

 municated to him the facts here given. Many hibernating Swallows were found 

 and handled. 



The foregoing titles, it will be observed, are only of special papers on the 

 subject — the bulli of the literature being found in works or tracts of more 

 general character. I will give two instances of the style in which the sub- 

 ject appears in literature. Peter Ealm, the celebrated traveller, wrote from 

 New Jersey in 1750, that he had observed Barn Swallows on the 10th of 

 April (new style), sitting on planks and posts, as wet as if they had just 

 come out of the sea ; and the famous John Reinhold Forster, editor and 

 translator of Kalm, adds very explicit testimony of his own, he being an 

 eye-witness. Dr. Wallorius, the distinguished Swedish chemist, wrote in 

 1748, that he had more than once seen Swallows assembling on a reed, till 

 they were all immersed ; and that he had likewise seen a Swallow caught 



