ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



71 



that the unusual warmth of the weather might have awakened them ; 

 but had it not been for this timely fair weather, they would no doubt 

 have perished. 



And it is also very probable, as Mr. White himself observes, that 

 they " spend their time in deep and sheltered holes, near waters, where 

 insects are more likely to be found." 



I will not occupy your pages (should you deem this worthy of 

 insertion) with further quotations ; suffice it to say, that both White 

 and Markwick advance numerous facts in favour of torpidity, but they 

 appear to consider, not that the whole tribe of swallows remains in a 

 torpid state, but that individual birds only have been found. Now, 

 I do not doubt, that, " after the hirundines have disappeared for some 

 weeks, a few are occasionally seen again, and that only for one day," 

 and it is most probable that " they withdraw and slumber in some 

 hiding-place during the interval ;" but torpidity is a very different 

 thing, and if we allow that swallows have been found in a state of real 

 torpidity, we must allow that the swallow is capable of enduring 

 torpidity, and we may very justly observe that if this power has 

 been given, it must have been for some express purpose, and why 

 does not the whole tribe remain in that state ? but we have abundant 

 proof that this is not the case. 



Markwick says " Of their migration, the proofs are such as will 

 scarcely admit of a doubt. Sir Charles Wager and Captain Wright saw 

 vast flocks of them at sea, when on their passage from one country to 

 another." And Mr. White himself gives an instance of what he con- 

 sidered actual migration ; in fact that the swallow is a migratory bird is 

 seldom doubted ; and indeed what reason is there for doubting it, when 

 so many heavier and shorter winged birds are known to migrate ; the 

 only doubt upon the subject is, that sovne swallows remain in a torpid 

 state ; and this I deny for reasons stated above ; but this will be much 

 better explained by referring to an excellent note by Sir W. Jardine, 

 in White's Natural History of Selborne. 



The swallow is a very peculiar bird ; I have seen it busily employed 

 in building its nest under an ornamental swing bridge, in a garden, and 

 so low that a person could but just pass under sitting upright in a boat. 

 White says " they do not enter, like the house martin, the close and 

 crowded parts of the city ;" this is not the case in the present day, for 

 they are quite as common in the city as the martin, and frequently 

 build in the " close and crowded parts." 



