cxc 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
natural habit: we have the most unexceptionable proofs that 
swallows do migrate ; they have been seen at sea on the rigging 
of ships; and Adanson, the celebrated naturalist, is said to have 
caught four European swallows fifty leagues from land, be- 
tween the coast of Goree and Senegal, in the month of October. 
Spallanzani saw swallows in October on the island of Li- 
pari, and he was told that when a warm southerly breeze blows 
in winter they are frequently seen skimming along the streets 
in the city. He concludes that they do not pass into Africa at 
the approach of winter, but remain in the island, and issue 
from their retreat on warm days in quest of food.”* 
The late professor Barton of Philadelphia, in a letter to the 
editor of the Philosophical Magazine, thus comments upon the 
first paragraph of the above remarks of Dr. Reeve: “ It ap- 
pears somewhat surprising to me, that an author who had so 
long had the subject of the torpidity of animals under his con- 
sideration, should have hazarded the assertion contained in the 
preceding paragraph. Dr. Reeve has certainly read of other 
birds besides the swallow, the cuckoo, and the woodcock, 
which are said to have been found in a torpid state. And ought 
he not to have mentioned these birds? 
“ In my ‘ Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylva- 
nia, ’ I have mentioned the common humming-bird ( Trochilus 
colubris) as one of those American birds which do occasionally 
become torpid. 
“ In regard to the swallows, I shall say but little at present. 
* An Essay on the Torpidity of Animals, by Henry Reeve, M. D. p. 40. 
The author of this narrative, in tire middle of December, 1820, was at 
Nice, on the MediteiTanean; and had the gi’atification of beholding the com- 
mon European Swallow (Hirundo rustica) fljing tlu'ough the sti-eets in con- 
siderable numbers. M. Risso, a well-known n.atui-alist, and a resident of the 
place, informed him tliat swallows remained tliere all winter. 
On the 20th February, 1818, being at tlie moutli of tlie river St. John, in 
East Florida, I observed several swallows of tire species viridis of Wilson; and, 
on the 26th, a flight of them, consisting of several hundreds, coming from the 
sea. They are the first wliich reach us in tlie spring from tlie south. They 
commonly arrive in Pennsylvania in the early part of March. 
