BARN SWALLOW. 
415 
tary and very suspicious reports of a Mr. Somebody having 
made a discovery of this kind? If caves were their places of 
winter retreat, perhaps no country on earth could supply them 
with a greater choice. I have myself explored many of these 
in various parts of the United States both in winter and in spring, 
particularly in that singular tract of country in Kentucky, call- 
ed the Barrens, where some of these subterraneous caverns 
are several miles in length, lofty and capacious, and pass under 
a large and deep river — have conversed with the saltpetre 
workers by whom they are tenanted ; but never heard or met 
with one instance of a Swallow having been found there in 
winter. These people treated such reports with ridicule. 
It is to he regretted that a greater number of experiments 
have not been made, by keeping live Swallows through the win- 
ter, to convince these believers in the torpidity of birds, of their 
mistake. That class of cold-blooded animals which are known 
to become torpid during winter, and of which hundreds and 
thousands are found every season, are subject to the same when 
kept in a suitable room for experiment. How is it with the 
Swallows in this respect? Much powerful testimony might be 
produced on this point; the following experiments recently 
made by Mr. James Pearson of London, and communicated 
by Sir John Trevelyn, Bart, to Mr. Bewick, the celebrated en- 
graver in wood, will be sufficient for our present purpose, and 
throw great light on this part of the subject.* 
‘‘Five or six of these birds were taken about the latter end 
of August, 1784, in a bat fowling net at night; they were put 
separately into small cages, and fed with nightingale’s food: ih 
about a week or ten days they took food of themselves; they 
were then put altogether into a deep cage, four feet long, with 
gravel at the bottom ; a broad shallow pan with water was placed 
in it, in which they sometimes washed themselves, and seemed 
much strengthened by it. One day Mr. Pearson observed that 
they went into the water with unusual eagerness, hurrying in 
and out again repeatedly with such swiftness as if they had been 
* See Bewick’s British Birds, vol. i, p. 254. 
