Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/425

Rh to frequent that district. For I have ever remarked that they haunt near great waters, either rivers or lakes.—. Here, and in many other passages of his writings, this very ingenious naturalist savours the opinion that part, at least, of the swallow tribe pass their winter in a torpid state in the same manner as bats and flies, and revive again on the approach of spring,

I have frequently taken notice of all these circumstances, which induced Mr. White to suppose that some of these hirundines lie torpid during winter. I have seen so late as November, on a finer day than usual at that season of the year, two or three swallows flying backwards and forwards under a warm hedge, or on the sunny side of some old building; nay, I once saw on the 8th December two martins flying about very briskly, the weather being mild. I had not seen any considerable number either of swallows or martins for a considerable time before; from whence, then, could these few birds come, if not from some hole or cavern where they had laid themselves up for the winter? Surely it will not be asserted that these birds migrate back again from some distant tropical region, merely on the appearance of a fine day or two at this late season of the year. Again, very early in the spring, and sometimes immediately after very cold severe weather, on its growing a little warmer, a few of these birds suddenly make their appearance, long before the generality of them are seen. These appearances certainly favour the opinion of their passing the winter in a torpid state, but do not absolutely prove the fact; for who ever saw them reviving of their own accord from their torpid state, without being first brought to the fire, and as it were, forced into life again; soon after which revivification they constantly die. —.

SWALLOWS, CONGREGATING AND DISAPPEARANCE OF. During the severe winds that often prevail late in the spring, it is not easy to say how the hirundines subsist; for they withdraw themselves, and are hardly ever seen, nor do any insects appear