244 
CORNCRAKES. 
the following year the tree was cut down, the hollow was 
then found to he about six feet in diameter, and filled, six 
inches deep, with hones, feathers, and other remains of dead 
birds, such, probably, as were too old or too feeble to fly out I 
in the Spring. They apparently must have occupied the 
tree for several years. Two other trees were subsequently j 
seen, fallen, with* similar appearances.^ 
Again, about half a dozen Swallows were found a few 
years ago, in a torpid state, in the trunk of a hollow tree, by 
a countryman, who brought them to a respectable person, by | 
whom they were deposited in a desk, where they remained \ 
forgotten till the following Spring, when, one morning, on || 
hearing a noise, he opened the desk, and found one of them 
fluttering about : the others also began to show signs of life, 
and, upon being placed out of doors in the sun, speedily | 
arranged their plumage, took wing, and disappeared. 
On the 2nd of November, 1829, at Loch Ransa, in the 
Island of Arran, a man, while digging in a place where a 
pond had been lately drained off, discovered two Swallows 
in a state of torpor : on placing them near the fire, they 
recovered. One unfortunately escaped, hut the other was 
kept by the man for the purpose of showing it to some 
scientific persons. 
In addition to these cases relating to Swallows, we have j 
two instances of dormant Corncrakes, which are also migra- 
tory Summer birds. A farmer at Aikerness, in Orkney, 
about mid- winter, in demolishing a mud wall, there called 
a hill- dike, found a Corncrake in the midst of it, — a bird 
which is plentiful in summer, but departs, like Swallows, 
at the close of that season. It was apparently lifeless ; but, 
being fresh to the feel and smell, it was placed in a warm 
situation. In a short time it began to move, and in a few 
hours was able to walk about, and lived for two days in the 
kitchen ; but, refusing all food, it died. 
The other occurred at Monaghan, in Ireland, where a Ij 
gentleman, having directed his labourers, in Winter, to 
Phil. Mag., vol. l. p. 317. 
