SWALLOW* 



81 



he captured many with the threads still round 

 their legs, and with the colours almost as bright as 

 at first; thus proving that they returned to the 

 same places, and they did not retire beneath the 

 w^ater. These birds are always very much reduced 

 in number when they return in the spring, proba- 

 bly from many of them being exhausted by fa- 

 tigue in crossing the sea, and being consequently 

 drowned. 



Bewick relates the following experiments, which 

 were communicated to him by Sir John Tre-* 

 velyan, and performed by Mr. Pearson ; which are 

 well deserving the attention of naturalists. — " Five 

 or six of these birds were taken about the latter 

 end of August, 1 784, in a bat-fowling net, at night ; 

 they w^ere put separately into small cages, and fed 

 with. Nightingale's food. In about a week or ten 

 days they took the food of themselves : they were 

 then put all together into a deep cage, four feet 

 long, with gravel at the bottom ; a broad shallow 

 pan with water was placed in it, in which they 

 sometimes washed themselves, and seemed much 

 strengthened by it. One day Mr. Pearson ob- 

 served that they went into the water with unusual 

 eagerness, hurrying in and out again repeatedly, 

 with such swiftness as if they had been sud- 

 denly seized with a frenzy. Being anxious to see 

 the result, he left them to themselves about half 

 an hour, and on going to the cage again found 

 them all huddled together in a corner, appa- 

 rently dead ; the cage was then placed at a 

 proper distance from the fire, when two of them 



V. X. p. I. 6 



