E «9' ] 



ferred from it, but hath endeavoured to confirm by an actual 

 experiment l . 



M. de Buffon, from the many inftances of fwallows being 

 found torpid even under water, very readily admits, that all the 

 birds of this genus do not migrate, but only that fpecies which 

 was feen by Monf. Adanfon in Africa, and which he generally 

 refers to as the chimney fwallow m ; but, from the outfet, feems 

 to mew that he hath himfelf confounded this fpecies with the 

 martin. 



" Prenons un feul oifeau, par exemple, l'hirondelle, celle que 

 " tout le monde connoit, qui paroit au printems, difparoit en 

 '* automne, & fait fon nid avec de la terre contre les fenetres, ou 

 " dans les cheminees," p. 23. 



It is very clear that the defign in this period is to fpecify a par- 

 ticular bird in fuch a manner that no doubt could remain with any 

 one about the fpecies referred to ; and from other paffages which 

 follow, it is as clear that Monf. de BufFon means to allude to the 

 fwallow xctz £%o%w* 



Though this was certainly the intention of this mod; ingenious 

 naturalift, it is to me very evident that the martin, and not the 



1 See the two prefatory difcourfes on his fixteenth volume of natural 

 hiftory. 



m So little do naturalifls know of this very common bird, that I be- 

 lieve it hath never yet been obferved by any writer, that the tail-feathers 

 are much longer in the cock than hen fwallow, which are coniidered as 

 its molt diftinguifhing marks. I venture to make this remark upon hav- 

 ing feen the difference in two" fwallows which are in Mr. Tunftall's collec- 

 tion, F. R S. as alfo in two others, which have lately been prefented to 

 the Mufeum of the Royal Society by the directors of the Hudfon's Bay 

 company. 



Thefevery long feathers would be very inconvenient to the hen during 

 incubation ; and they are likewife confined to the cock widow-bird, as, 

 from their more extraordinary length, they would be ftill more fo. The 

 fame holds with regard to molt (if not all) of the humming birds. 



fwallow, 



