JEFFCOTT : THE SEVEN SLEEPERS. 



15 



The amiable and ingenious naturalist, Gilbert White, concurred 

 in the opinion held by many of his co-temporaries, that at least a part 

 of the swallow tribe spent the winter in torpidity. In reference to 

 the first appearance of sand-martins in the spring, he says : ' It is 

 easy to suppose that they may, like bats and flies, have been awakened 

 by the influence of the sun amidst their secret latebrce^ where they 

 have spent the uncomfortable foodless months in a torpid state and 

 the profoundest'of slumbers.' — -Nat. Hist, of Selborne. 



Isaac Walton tells us, on the authority of naturalists of his time : 

 ' It is well known that swallows and wagtails, which are called half- 

 year birds, and not seen to fly in England for six months in the year, 

 but about Michaelmas leave us for a better climate; yet some of 

 them that have been left behind their fellows have been found, many 

 thousands at a time, in hollow trees or clay caves, where they have 

 been observed to live and sleep out the whole winter without meat' 



Anacreon had clearer views of the swallows' habits and migrations 

 than Gilbert White. The foflowing hnes are from one of the prettiest 

 of his odes : — 



irrjcrcr] fjLoXovcra 

 Oepet TrAeKet? KaX.trjv. 

 -^eijxCijvi 8' ef? a<f)avT0<5 



Tj NetAoV, rj Vi M.€IJL(fiLV. 



' Once in each revolving year, 

 Gende bird ! we find thee here ; 

 When nature wears her summer vest, 

 Thou coni'st to weave thy simple nest : 

 But when the chilling winter lowers, 

 Again thou seek'st the genial bowers 

 Of Memphis, or the shores of Nile, 

 Where sunny hours for ever smile.' — Moore. 



The following oft-repeated but ridiculous tale was told me in my 

 boyhood. A cuckoo had adopted as its winter resting place a hole in 

 the dead trunk of a tree. The trunk had been severed, and the hollow 

 section was removed to form a yule-log. It was placed on the 

 chiollagh^ or fire-place. The bird was, by the heat, awakened from 

 its sleep, and, though denuded of its feathers, emerged from its 

 seclusion, and cheered the company with its vernal song. 



Eupoecilia dubitana in Yorkshire.— This very nice addition to the 

 Yorkshire list of Lepidoptera was taken freely by Mr. S. L. Mosley, at DungeonWood, 

 Huddersfield, last month (June). Mr. Mosley has veiy kindly presented me with 

 a series of the specimens. — Geo. T. Porritt, Huddersfield, July 23rd, 1884. 



Aug. 1884. 



