LIFE OF WILSON. 
clxxxvii 
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 them, and marked their 
peculiarities more than I have done; yet the miracle of a resus- 
citated Swallow, in the depth of winter, from the bottom of a 
millpond, is, I confess, a phenomenon in ornithology that I 
have never met with.” 
The subject of the supposed torpidity of swallows has em- 
ployed many writers, but unfortunately too few of those, whose 
practical knowledge enabled them to speak with that certainty, 
which should always give authority to writings on natural his- 
tory. Reasoning a priori ought to have taught mankind a 
more rational opinion, than that which the advocates of hyber- 
nation have unthinkingly promulgated. And is it not sur- 
prising that as experiments are so easy to be instituted, they 
should have been so seldom resorted to, in order to determine 
a problem which many may suppose tp be intricate, but which, 
in effect, is one of the simplest, or most easy to be ascertained, 
of any in the whole animal kingdom? It is a fact, that all the 
experiments which have been made, on the subject of the hy- 
bernation of birds, have failed to give countenance, in the most 
remote degree, to this irrational doctrine. . ^ , 
From my personal experience, and from my earliest youth I 
have been conversant with the habits of birds, I feel myself 
justified in asserting, that, in the whole class Jives, there has 
ter, and tliey alone are so overcome by tlie cold as to be rendered torpid, the 
difference must be found in their anatomical structure, and in tlieir habits of life. 
“ Now, in the first place, it is ceitain tliat they have, in common with other 
bii-ds, tlie three gveat functions of respiration, circulation, and assimilation: tlie 
similai-ity of tlieir organs, and every ch’cumstance in their mode of living, 
prove tliat tliey are subject to the same laws: they have also a very liigh tem- 
perature; and are peculiarly organized for rapid and long flight. The size of 
theii’ lungs, tlie lightness of their bones, and tlie buoyancy of tlieii’ feathers, 
render it absolutely impossible to sink them in water without a considerable 
weight; and tliey die instantly for want of air.” Reeve on Torpidity, p. 43. 
