SWALLOWS. 
41 
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 deceiv- 
ing, are abundant, coming too from different and 
distant quarters, they at all events merit some notice; 
and that future observers may, by being made ac- 
quainted 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 re- 
spectable authority. 
On the 16th of November, 1826, a gentleman 
residing near Loch Awe, in Scotland, having occasion 
to examine an out-house, used as a cart-shed, saw an 
unusual appearance upon one of the rafters, which 
crossed and supported the thatched roof. Upon 
mounting a ladder, he found, to his astonishment, 
that this was a group of Chimney-Swallows ( Hirundo 
rustico ), which had taken their winter quarters in 
this exposed situation. The group consisted of five, 
completely torpid ; and none of the tribe to which 
they belonged had been seen for five or six weeks 
previously; he took them in his hand as they lay 
closely and coldly huddled together, and conveyed 
them to his house, in order to exhibit them as ob- 
jects of curiosity to the other members of his family. 
For some time they remained to all appearance life- 
less; but the temperature of the apartment into 
which they were carried being considerably raised, 
by a good turf fire, they gradually evinced symptoms 
of reanimation; and in less than a quarter of an 
