104 ON THE SUPPOSED CAPABILITY OF THE 
tom of torpidity; and on the 12th of January I 
exhibited it at a meeting of the Literary and Philo- 
sophical Society of Manchester, at which time it 
was moulting, and in as good health, apparently, as 
birds usually are when undergoing that process, a 
minute to that effect being entered in the Journal 
of the Proceedings of the Society by my friend 
Mr. Peter Clare, who then officiated as secretary. 
On the 18th of the succeeding February this young © 
Cuckoo died very suddenly, an event occasioned, in 
all probability, by exposure to severe cold; for a 
Six’s self-registering thermometer, fixed in its cage 
several days before, indicated that the temperature 
had descended to 31°; and though the bird had 
previously resisted the effects of a much lower degree 
of temperature, yet it had not then made such pro- 
gress in moulting, and was therefore better protected, 
being more completely covered with feathers. I may 
remark that in the year 1826 adult Cuckoos dis- 
appeared from the neighbourhood of Manchester in 
the first week of July, and that young birds of the 
same species were not observed there after the ter- 
mination of August. 
Admitting the difficulty of proving a negative, 
still I am inclined to think that the experiments 
detailed above, when taken in conjunction with 
others yet to be adduced, go far to establish the 
opinion that birds have not any physiological tendency 
to torpidity. 
