560 SWALLOWS. Class II. 



Lastly, The Reverend Mr. Conway, of Sych- 

 ton, Flintshire, was so obliging as to communi- 

 cate the following fact. A few years ago, on 

 looking down an old lead mine in that county, 

 he observed numbers of swallows clinging to 

 the timbers of the shaft, seemingly asleep ; and 

 on flinging some gravel on them, they just 

 moved, but never attempted to fly or change 

 their place; this was between All Saints and 

 Christmas. 



These are doubtless the lurking places of the 

 latter hatches, or of those young birds, who are 

 incapable of distant migrations. There they 

 continue insensible and rigid ; but like flies may 

 sometimes be reanimated by an unseasonable 

 hot day in the midst of winter; for very near 

 Christmas a few appeared on the moulding of 

 a window of Merton College, Oxford, in a re- 

 markably warm nook, which prematurely set 

 their blood in motion, having the same effect as 

 laying them before the fire at the same time of 

 year. Others have been known to make this 

 premature appearance, but as soon as the cold 

 natural to the season returned, they withdrew 

 again to their former retreats. 



I shall conclude with one argument drawn 

 from the very late hatches of two species. 



On the twenty-third of October, 1767, a mar- 



