[ *93 ] 



He mut up fome {wallows (Jnrondellei) in an ice-houfe, which 

 were there confined " plus ou moins de temps ;" and the confe- 

 quence was, that thofe which remained there the longer! died, 

 nor could they be revived by expofing them to the fun ; and that 

 thofe, "qui n'avoient fouffert le froid de la glaciere que pendant 

 " peu de terns," were very lively when permitted to make their 

 efcape. 



M. de BufFon does not, in this account of his experiment, irate 

 the time during which the birds were confined ; but as the trial 

 muft have been made in France, the fwallows which he procured 

 could not be expected to be torpid either in an ice-houfe p or any 

 other place, becaufe the feafon for their being in that ftate was 

 not yet arrived. 



I cannot alfo agree with M. de BufFon, that thofe birds which 

 were fhut up the longeft time died through cold, as he fuppofes, 

 but for want of food, as he neither fupplied them with any 

 flies, nor, if he had, could the fwallows have caught them in 

 the dark : a very fhort faft kills thefe tender animals, which are 

 feeding every inftant when on the wing. 



It therefore feems not to follow from this experiment, that 

 fwallows muft neceffarily migrate (as M. de BufFon fuppofes) to 

 the coaft of Senegal. 



p The very name of an ice-houfe almofc ftrikes one with a chill ; I 

 placed, however, a thermometer in one near Hyde Park Corner on the 

 23d of November, whereit continued 48 hours, and the mercury then 

 flood at 43 1 by Fahrenheit's fcale. 



This is therefore a degree of cold which fwallows fometimes expe- 

 rience whilft they continue in fome parts of Europe, without any appa- 

 rent inconvenience ; and it fnould feem that the cold valours, which may 

 arife from the included ice, fink the thermometer only 7 or 8 decrees, 

 as the temperature in approved cellars is commonly from 50 or 51 

 throughout the year. 



Swallows 



C c 



