414 
SW ALL‘OW S. Gram 
times fall in plentiful fhowers on Norway and the 
neighboring countries *. | 
Some of our own countrymen have given credit 
_ to the fubmerfion of fwallows +; and Kiein patro- 
nifes the doctrine ftrongly, giving the following 
hiftory of their manner of retiring, which he re- 
ceived from fome countrymen and others. They 
afferted, that fometimes the fwallows affembled in 
numbers on a reed, till it broke and funk with them 
to the bottom ; and their immerfion was preluded 
by a dirge of a quarter of an hour’s length. That 
others would unite in laying hold of a ftraw 
with their bills, and fo plunge down in fociety. 
Others again would form a large mafs, by cling- 
ing together with their feet, and fo commit them- 
felves to the deep f. 
Such are the relations given by thofe that are 
fond of this opinion, and though delivered with- 
out exaggeration, muft provoke a f{mile.- They 
affign not the fmalleft reafon to account for thefe 
birds being able to endure fo lone a fubmerfion 
without being fuffocated, or without decaying, in 
an clement fo unnatural to fo delicate a bird; 
* Ge/ner Icon. An. 100. 
t*Derham’s “Phyf. Theol. 340. 349. Hildrop’s Trags, II. 
32. 
t Klin bift. av. 205, 206. Ekmarck migr. av. Amen. 
acad. IV. 589. 
when 

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