PERIODICAL BIRDS TO BECOME TORPID. 103 
experiment never evinced the least disposition to 
become torpid, but, on the contrary, at that period 
(and only then) it was affected with extreme excita- 
bility and restlessness, indicative of a strong desire to 
change its locality. 
A person named Thomas Holt brought to Crump- 
sall Hall, on the Ist of July, 1826, a young Cuckoo 
which he had taken about an hour before out of the 
nest of a Titlark ; and at my request he undertook to 
keep and treat it according to such instructions as 
from time to time I should communicate to him. 
This nestling, under the prescribed system of man- 
agement, increased rapidly in growth and vigour ; and 
as the principal object I had in view was to ascertain 
whether it would become torpid on the approach of 
winter or not, the cage occupied by it was placed in 
a room without a fire. In the ensuing November 
sharp frosts were of frequent occurrence ; the maxi- 
mum temperature of the last week in that month, 
indicated by a pair of Rutherford’s horizontal self- 
registering thermometers, exposed to the open air in a 
shady situation, was 46°5, the minimum 22°, and 
the mean 36°, as recorded in my meteorological 
journal: but in January, 1827, the cold became 
intense; the temperature descended to zero on the 
night of the 4th, and the mean for the month was so 
low as 34°18. 
Notwithstanding the extreme severity of the season, 
the young bird did not manifest the slightest symp- 
