348 TORPIDITY OF HIRUNDINES. 
mined. They have been often observed with us to 
take up their abode in small parties in villages where 
the inhabitants had never seen them before. I have 
also noticed that they even resolve on new settle¬ 
ments after rearing a first brood ; in the end of 
July, 1835, a party suddenly arrived in this village 
and examined minutely my windows and eaves, as 
also those of a house opposite; after continuing this 
scrutiny and consultation a whole day, they again 
quitted us. On July 19th, 1838, they acted in the 
same manner at a house at Yealm Bridge. White 
Martins have been seen here at times. 
Sand Martins also, are quite as uncertain in fix¬ 
ing their abodes and they are soon scared from 
their haunts by a gun ; they used in former years 
to affect the banks of the river about a mile from 
my house, but have not been seen since. They 
haunt in great numbers the river Exe at this time, 
and are, as I am told, frequently noticed there at 
periods through the wfinter on the recurrence of fine 
days. A party also haunts the sand-banks near 
Hoo Meavy. The species occurs likewise at 
Thurlestone. 
Reverting to the question of torpidity I may re¬ 
late the experience of a naturalist w ith whom I had 
the happiness of being acquainted a few* years ago. 
A lady brought to him a Swift in a torpid state, 
which she had just found clinging to her window 
curtain ; he held it to the fire and it revived, but 
perhaps through excessive reaction it perished soon 
after. This was in autumn after the generality of 
Swifts had departed. An elderly gentleman of my 
own profession also relates that tw r o or three Swifts 
their departure, and in a Village, near Looe in Cornwall, one pair 
still had young in their nest at the same date. Probably the wet 
and storms had more than once destroyed their hopes of progeny. 
