C I" ] 



iowing hiftory of their manner of retiring, 

 which he received from fome countrymen and 

 others. They afîerted, that fometimes the 

 Swallows afTembled in numbers on a reed, 

 till it broke and funk with them to the bot- 

 tom j and their immerfion was preluded by a 

 dirge of a quarter of an hour in length : that 

 others would unite in laying hold of a llraw with 

 their bills, and fo plunge down in fociety : others 

 again would form a large mafs, by clinging 

 together with their feet, and fo commit them 

 felves to the deep. 



Such are the relations given by thofe that arc 

 fond of this opinion ; and, though delivered with- 

 out exaggeration, muft provoke a fmile. They 

 alTign not the fmalleft reafon to account for thefe 

 birds being able to endure fo long a fubmerfion 

 without being fuffocated, or without decaying, in 

 an elem^ent fo unnatural to fo delicate a bird ; 

 when we know that the Otter the Cormorant, 



and 



• Though entirely fatisfied in our own mind of the impoffi- 

 bility of thefe relations ; yet, delirous of ftrengthening our 

 opinion with fome better authority, we applied to that able 



anatomift. 



