36 



BARN SWALLOW. 



same semi-annual submersion — that I myself had fished up a whole 

 family of these from the bottom of Schuylkill, where they had lain 

 torpid all winter, carried them home, and brought them all comfor- 

 tably to themselves again. Should I even publish this in the learn- 

 ed pages of the Transactions of our Philosophical Society, who 

 would believe me ? Is then the organization of a Swallow less de- 

 licate than that of a man? Can a bird, whose vital functions are 

 destroyed by a short privation of pure air and its usual food, sus- 

 tain, for six months, a situation where the most robust man would 

 perish in a few hours or minutes ? Away with such absurdities ! — 

 They are unworthy of a serious refutation. I should be pleased 

 to meet with a man who has been personally more conversant with 

 birds than myself, who has followed them in their wide and devious 

 routes — studied their various manners — mingled with and marked 

 their peculiarities more than 1 have done; yet the miracle of a re- 

 suscitated swallow, in the depth of winter, from the bottom of a 

 mill pond, is, I confess, a phenomenon in ornithology that I have 

 never met with. 



What better evidence have we that these fleet-winged tribes, 

 instead of following the natural and acknowledged migrations of 

 many other birds, lie torpid all winter in hollow trees, caves and 

 other subterraneous recesses? That the Chimney Swallow, in the 

 early part of summer, may have been found in a hollow tree, and 

 in great numbers too, is not denied; such being in some places of 

 the country (as will be shewn in the history of that species,) their 

 actual places of rendezvous, on their first arrival, and their com- 

 mon roosting place long after; or that the Bank Swallows, also, 

 soon after their arrival, in the early part of spring, may be chilled 

 by the cold mornings which we frequently experience at that sea- 

 son, and be found in this state in their holes, I would as little dis- 

 pute; but that either the one or the other has ever been found, in 

 the midst of tvinter in a state of torpidity , I do not, cannot believe. 

 Millions of trees of all dimensions are cut down every fall and win- 



