48 



NATURAL HISTORY 



As to sivallows (hirundines riisticcej 

 being found in a torpid state during the 

 winter in the Isle of Wight, or any part 

 of this country, I never heard any such 

 account worth attending to. But a 

 clergyman, of an inquisitive turn, assures 

 me, that, when he was a great boy, some 

 workmen, in pulling down the battle- 

 ments of a church tower early in the 

 Spring, found two or three swifts (hi- 

 rimdines apodes ) among the rubbish, 

 which were, at first appearance, dead ; 

 but, on being carried toward the fire, re- 

 vived. He told me that, out of his great 

 care to preserve them, he put them in a 

 paper bag, and hung them by the kitchen 

 fire, where they were suffocated. 



Another intelligent person has in- 

 formed me that, while he was a schoolboy 

 at Brighthelmstone, in Sussex, a great 

 fragment of the chalk- cliff fell down one 

 stormy winter on the beach ; and that 

 many people found swailoivs among the 

 rubbish : but, on my questioning him 



