[ m ] 



I have however the following iaftance of their fometimes choofing 

 other places of concealment. 



The Rev. Mr. Williams of Bifhop's Waltham in Hampfhire 

 found three Swifts in the battlements of an old flint tower be- 

 longing to that town during the winter, which being brought 

 into a warm room fhewed figns of life, but afterwards hanging 

 them up in a paper bag clofe to the kitchen fire they were either 

 {titled by the clofenefs of the bag, or killed by the too great 

 heat. See alfo an inftance of three Swifts being found in an old 

 oak during the winter, which, on being laid before the fire, foon 

 recovered flrength enough to fly about the room, though they 

 died foon after 7 . Ariftotle indeed aflerfs, that in Greece the Swift 

 never difappears, (potivzroit oo-^v uTiaq tvwtmv u^av z . 



1 mall now endeavour to corroborate thefe facts with regard to 

 moft of the fpecies of fwallows being obferved during the winter 

 either in a torpid ftate, or on the wing, by fome other proofs, 

 which feem to make ftrongly againft the periodical migration of 

 fuch birds acrofs oceans. 



They who maintain this opinion, always fuppofe that thefe 

 birds pafs to the northward upon the approach of fpring, in great 

 flocks ; of which however I have not been able to find any in- 

 ftance in what hath been printed on this fubject, except what is 

 ftated .in the Philofophical Tranfa&ions, of a number having 

 lighted upon the fails of Sir Charles Wager's fleet in the Channel. 

 I flatter myfelf alfo, that I have (in a previous eflay) fully an- 

 fwered any inferences to be drawn from this relation in fupport 

 of migration; and miift iikewife repeat, that fuch inftances muft 

 happen as regularly as the return of the feafons, did fwallows 

 then pafs to the northward. 



2 Phil. Tranf. Vol. LXV. p. 347. and another infbmce, p. 349. 

 s Ariil. de Hift. Anim. L. I. c. 1, 



But 



