ClafsII. SWALLOWS. 25 i 



winter quarters near home. If it fhould be demand- 

 ed, why fwallows alone are found in a torpid ftate, 

 and not the other many fpecies of foft billed birds, 

 which likewife difappear about the fame time ? The 

 following reafon may be affigned : 



No birds are fo much on the wing as fwallows, 

 none fly with fuch fwiftnefs and rapidity, none are 

 obliged to fuch fudden and various evolutions in their 

 flight, none are at fuch pains to take their prey, and 

 we may add, none exert their voice more incefTantly; 

 all thefe occafion a vaft expence of ftrength, and of 

 fpirits, and may give fuch a texture to the blood, 

 that other animals cannot experience ; and fo difpofe, 

 or we may fay, necefiitate, this tribe of birds, or part 

 of them, at left, to a repofe more lafting than that of 

 any others. 



The third notion is, even at firft fight, too ama- 

 zing and unnatural to merit mention, if it was not 

 thatfome of the learned have been credulous enough 

 to deliver, for fact, what has the ftrongeft appearance 

 of impoflibility ; we mean the relation of fwallows 

 palling the winter immerfed under ice, at the bottom 

 of lakes, or lodged beneath the water of the fea at 

 the foot of rocks. The firft who broached this opi- 

 nion, was Olaus Magnus, archbifhop of Upfal, who 

 very gravely informs us, that thefe birds are often 

 found in cluttered maJTes 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 their 

 fubaqueous retreats. That when old fifhermen dis- 

 cover fuch a mafs, they throw it into the water again; 

 but when young inexperienced ones take it, they will, 



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