40 
HIRUNDO AMERICANA. 
of spring- ! Is not this true, ye wise men of Europe 
and Amei-ica, w’ho liave published so many credibU 
narratives on this subject ? The geese, the ducks, th® 
cat-bird, and even the wren, which creeps about old 
outhouses in summer like a mouse, are all ackuowledn-c** 
to be migratory, and to pass to southern regions at tW 
wproach of winter: the swallow alone, on whoB* 
Iieaven has conferred superior powers of wing, must 
sink in torpidity at the bottom of our rivers, or do*®, 
all winter in the caverns of the earth. I am myscU 
something of a traveller, and foreign countries affoi^ 
many novel sights: should I assert, that in some of niV 
peregrinations I had met with a nation of Indians, all 
of whom, old and young-, at the commencement of col^ 
•weather, descend to the bottom of their lakes ninl 
rivers, and there remain until the breaking np of frost; 
nay, should 1 affirm, that thousands of people in tliB 
ueighhourhood of this city, regularly undergo the sam« 
semi-annual submersion, — that I myself had lished uP 
a whole family of these from the bottom of Schuylkilb 
where they had lain forjdd all winter, carried thenJ 
home, and brought them all comfortably to themselves 
again — should I even publish this in the learned page* 
of the Transactions of our Philosophical Societv who 
would believe mo f Is, then, the organization’ of » 
swallow less delicate than that of a man ? Can a bird, 
whoso vital functions are destroyed by a short privation 
of pure air and its usual food, sustain, for six months, 
a situation where the most robust man would perish 
in a few hours, or minutes ? Away with such absur- 
dities ! they arc unworthy of a serious refutation. 
I should be pleased to meet with a man who has been 
personally niore conversant with birds than myself, 
who has followed them in their wide and devious 
routes — studied their various manners — rainn-led with 
and marked their peculiarities more than I have done; 
yet the miracle of a resuscitated swallow, in the depth 
of winter, from the bottom of a mill-pond, is, I confe.ss, 
a phenomenon in ornithology that I have ’never met 
with. 
