SWALLOWS. 
212 
little difficulty in accounting for it, rapid as these birds are in 
motion, and fitted by their length of wing for long- continued 
flight. Notwithstanding which, many naturalists formerly, 
and some few still, maintain that they do not desert us entirely, 
hut become dormant during the cold weather, or, what is still 
more extraordinary, plunge into water, and remain buried in 
the mud at the bottom, till the warmth of Spring revives 
them, when they awaken from their slumbers and again 
become tenants of the air. j 
The Swallow. 
We will not positively assert that Swallows can, under any 
circumstances, continue through the Winter in a dormant 
state, and still less, that they can exist at the bottom of 
water ; hut as instances well attested, without assignable 
reasons for deceiving, are abundant, coming too from different 
and distant quarters, they at all events merit some notice ; 
and that future observers may, by being made acquainted 
with a few of the instances given, he enabled to clear up all 
doubts, or explain what may still remain to some a mystery, 
we will give those cases which have come to our knowledge, 
on the most respectable authority. 
