>62 SWALLOWS. . Class II. 



none are obliged to such sudden and various 

 evolutions in their flight; none are at such pains 

 to take their prey ; and we may add, none exert 

 their voice more incessantly : all these occasion 

 a vast expence of strength,, and of spirits, and 

 may give such a texture to the blood, that other 

 animals cannot experience, and so dispose, or 

 we may say, necessitate, this tribe of birds, or 

 a part of them, at lest, to a repose more lasting 

 than that of any others. 



The third notion is, even at first sight, too 

 amazing and unnatural to merit mention, if it 

 was not that some of the learned have been 

 credulous enough to deliver, for fact, what has 

 the strongest appearance of impossibility ; we 

 mean the relation of swallows passing the win- 

 ter immersed under ice, at the bottom of lakes, 

 or lodged beneath the water of the sea at the 

 foot of the rocks. The first who broached this 

 opinion, was Olaiis Magnus, Archbishop of 

 Upsal, who very gravely informs us, that these 

 birds are often found in clustered masses at 

 the bottom of the northern lakes, mouth to 

 mouth, wing to wing, foot to foot; and that 

 they creep down the reeds in autumn, to theif 

 subaqueous retreats. That when old fisher- 

 men discover such a mass, they throw it into 



