I 347 ] 
fwallow in the winter. Upon the whole, I cannot help 
thinking my own evidence, with refpedl to the martin,, 
to be ablblutely conclufive, as h likewife the teftimony 
of Mr. STEVENS and Dr. pye; thongh it is to be regret- 
ted, that thefe gentlemen fhonld have left any doubt, 
whether the birds found in the mud were fwallows or 
martins? And Mr. kleim, in his paper Be Hiberjiaculis 
Hirundinum^ ailerts, that his father found three black 
martins or fwifts in an old oak during the winter,, which 
on being laid before a firc,. foon recovered ilrength 
enough to fly about the room, though they died foon 
after. The obje<5tioii which has been brought againfl: 
the opinion, that thefe birds do remain torpid during 
winter, is, that all birds do moult once in a year, and 
fwallows do not moult with us. Now this argnment is 
of little weight with me; as I am of opinion, that no 
bird that is to remain in a torpid hate, during wdnter, 
can undergo the procefs of moulting; for it is proba- 
ble, if I may hazard fuch a conjedture, that the great lofs 
of blood, which other birds fuffer during the. change 
of their feathers, is faved by nature, in birds, which 
n-ndergo a hate of toTpidity, for their more effebtukl pre- 
•fervation in fueha ftate.. And I have known many in- 
hances of birdshept in cages that have not moulted for a 
feafon;, particularly a whidi retained his ibpg 
in full vigour during the autum-n and all the winter. At- 
tempts have been mods toJbring bn a: torpid] hate on - the 
birds in queflion,by conhiiinlg tlvem in a coki cellar ;, bub 
witlioutfucaefs^ Ihei force this. objedion feerns to be 
' ■ ' 6. loh 
