BARN SWALLOW. 
41 
What better evidence have we that these fleet-winged 
tribes, instead of following the natural and acknow- 
ledged 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 has been shewn in 
the history of that species,) their actual places of 
rendezvous, on their first arrival, 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 
frequently experience at that season, and be found in 
this state in their holes, I would as little dispute ; but 
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 solitary 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, called 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 be regretted that a greater number of experi- 
ments have not been made, by keeping live swallows 
through the winter, to convince these believers in the 
torpidity of birds, of their mistake. That class of cold- 
