BARN SWALLOW. x 3 r 



instead of following the natural and acknowledged migrations 

 of many other hirds, lie torpid all winter in hollow trees, caves, 

 and other subterraneous recesses ? That the chimney swallow, 

 in the early part of summer, may have been found in a 

 hollow tree, and in great numbers too, is not denied ; such 

 being, in some places of the country (as will be shown in the 

 history of that species), their actual places of rendezvous on 

 their first arrival, and their common roosting place long 

 after : or that the bank swallows, also, soon after their 

 arrival, in the early part of spring, may be chilled by the 

 cold mornings which we frequently experience at that season, 

 and be found in this state in their holes, I would as little 

 dispute ; but that either the one or the other has ever been 

 found, iii the midst of winter, in a state of torpidity, I 

 do not — cannot believe. Millions of trees, of all dimensions, 

 are cut down every fall and winter of this country, where, in 

 their proper season, swallows swarm around us. Is it, there- 

 fore, in the least probable that we should, only once or twice 

 in an age, have no other evidence than one or two solitary and 

 very suspicious reports of a Mr Somebody having made a 

 discovery of this kind ? If caves were their places of winter 

 retreat, perhaps no country on earth could supply them with 

 a greater choice. I have myself explored many of these, in 

 various parts of the United States, both in winter and in spring, 

 particularly in that singular tract of country in Kentucky 

 called the Barrens, where some of these subterraneous caverns 

 are several miles in length, lofty and capacious, and pass 

 under a large and deep river — have conversed with the salt- 

 petre workers by whom they are tenanted ; but never heard 

 or met with one instance of a swallow having been found there 

 in winter. These people treated such reports with ridicule. 



It is to be regretted that a greater number of experiments 

 have not been made, by keeping live swallows through the 

 winter, to convince these believers in the torpidity of birds of 

 their mistake. That class of cold-blooded animals which are 

 known to become torpid during winter, and of which hun- 



