414 
BARN SWALLOW. 
of these from the bottom of Schuylkillj where they had lain 
torpid all winter, carried them home, and brought them all 
comfortably to themselves again. Should I even publish this in 
the learned pages of the Transactions of our Philosophical So- 
ciety, who would believe me? Is then the organization of a 
Swallow less delicate than that of a man? Can a bird, whose 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 absurdities! — They are unworthy of a serious refutation. 
I should be pleased to meet with a man who has been person- 
ally more conversant with birds than myself, who has followed 
them in their wide and devious routes — studied their various 
manners — mingled 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 con- 
fess, a phenomenon in ornithology that I have never met with. 
What better evidence have we that these fleet-winged tribes, 
instead of following the natural and acknowledged migrations 
of many other birds, lie torpid all winter in hollow trees, caves 
and other subterraneous recesses? That the Chimney Swallow, 
in the early part of summer, may have been found in a hollow 
tree, and in great numbers too, is not denied; such being in 
some places of the country (as will be shown in the history of 
that species), their actual places of rendezvous, on their first ar- 
rival, and their common roosting place long after; or that the 
Bank Swallows, also, soon after their arrival, in the early part 
of spring, may be chilled by the cold mornings which we fre- 
quently experience at that season, and be found in this state in 
their holes, I would as little dispute; hut that either the one or 
the other has ever been found, in the midst of winter in a state 
of torpidity, I do not, cannot believe. Millions of trees of all 
dimensions are cut down every fall and winter of this country, 
where, in their proper season. Swallows swarm around us. Is 
it therefore in the least probable that we should, only once or 
twice in an age, have no other evidence than one or two soli- 
