here again hazard a conjecture that this fpecies does not hide itfelf under water during the winter, but rather in the crevices of rocks or other proper lurking places above ground, as most of thofe which have been discovered in fuch fituations have been martins.

The instances of this fort are fo numerous from all parts, that to bring them within a moderate compafs I muft only felect a few of them; promifing those who are incredulous, that I can most readily furnish many more than I fhall now produce.

I fhall begin with a letter dated at Towyn in Merionethshire, dated March 22, 1773.

Extract from a Letter relative to torpid Martins.

a

Towyn, Merionethshire, SIR, March 22, 1773. I received yours; and according to your defire I made as much enquiry as I could concerning the fwallows. Richard Hugh, boatman at Aberdyfyny, tells me, that he lived with Mr. Anwil about twenty years ago, when they were found by Mr. Anwil himfelf, who ordered him, with foine others of his fervants, to go along with him to fee them; and the faid Richard Hugh really believes that there were fome thousands of them; and Mr. Anwil, with his own hand, put fome of them into a part of the cliff which remained in the rock, they could at firft fcarcely perceive life in them, but foon they began to crawl a little, then they carried fome into the houfe, and held them near the fire, when they became pretty 5

that he now well remembers to have heard Mr. Anwil telling a deal about them, how remarkable it was to fee them at fuch time of the year, and he believes it was about twenty years ago; and Mr. Griffith Evans fays he is pofitive that it is true. Alfo, one Hugh Richard, a very credible old man in this town, fays, that he really heard Mr. Anwil mentioning them."

I have another account of the fame fort with regard to fwallows (or martins) being difcovered, about 16 years ago, at Yew-Law Caftle, near Hawarden, in Flintfhire.

I have received alfo the fame kind of information relative to torpid fwallows, in Carnarvon fire, and Caftleton in Derbyfhire.

Sir William Bellers told the late Dr. Chauncey that he hap-pened to top at a Fisherman's houfe in Cornwall, whofe net had been much torn by a large clod of earth, which, upon being examined, was very full of fwallows, that awaked from their torpidity upon being brought near the fire. I fhould rather fuppofe however that they were martins, from the circumflance

cumftance of their being found in a large clod of earth, which had probably dropt from the bank a little while before.

By a letter from Dr. Finley, Proveft of the college of New Jerfey, dated May 1, 1765, to the late Dr. Chandler, and foon afterwards communicated to the Royal Society, it appears that the fame notion prevails in America, with regard at leaft to fome fpecies of their swallows. Kalm alfo mentions their being found torpid in holes and clefts of rocks near Albany.

Dr. Pallas gives an account that on the 18th of March a fwallow (perhaps martin) was brought to him, near Ufa, which had been found in a field, to all appearance lifeless, but having remained a quarter of an hour in a warm room, it flew about, and lived fome days, till killed by accident.

Mr. Cornith, an ingenious furgeon, who refides at Totnefs in Devonshire, was fishing in the river Dart, at the beginning of November, 1774, and on a very warm day obferved feveral martins iffuing from fome large rocks, overgrown with ivy and thicket. On this appearance, at fuch a time of the year, he defifted from his amusement, that he might more attend to the motions of thefe birds, which had been brought out of their winter-quarters by the fineness of the weather, the fun at that time fhining strong on the rocks. They continued to flit backwards and forwards for almost half an hour, keeping very near together, and never flying in a direct line, nor when at the far

theft above a hundred yards diftant from the rocks, clofer to which they now (as the fun lowered) began to gather very fait. Their numbers were then leffened confiderably, and in a very short time they all returned to the fiffures of the rocks, from whence they had been induced to venture out by the warmth of the evening. Mr. Cornish concludes this account by afferting very. pofitively, that there was not one fwallow amongst these martins.

The fame ingenious naturalift afterwards mentions, that he hath feen martins at Totnefs in the months of December and January, though he never obferved a fwallow at that feafon; in which fact he is confirmed by a person whose name is Didham, and who faw two martins on the 26th of December at a place called Syffer

ton.

I fhall here fubjoin other facts of the fame kind, which I have received from the fame good authority.

Mr. Manning, a furgeon of reputation in Kingsbridge, when a boy, and in fearch of fparrows nefts, on a headland called the Hope, pulled out from under the thatch of an uninhabited house great numbers of fwallows (or martins) which he confidered as dead, but they afterwards revived; and their number amounted to more than 40. Mr. Manning recollects the fact at prefent as if it had been more recent, and likewife remembers, that the plumage was in perfect order; which was the cafe alfo with fome martins, which I received myself during the winter, from Camerton

in Somersetshire, in which there was not the leaft mark of putrefaction.

Another perfon drew out a great number of martins from the wall of an old caftle in Wales during winter, and the heat of his hands recovered fome of them fo as to fly.

Again, a plumber in Mr. Cornifh's neighbourhood hath made a folemn depofition, that being at work on the leads of Forabyhoufe (fituated on the fea-coaft in Torbay) early in the fpring, he found in fome of the cisterns feveral martins: that he at firft believed them to be dead; but as they looked not at all decayed, he began to fuppofe they might be only afleep, and that in confequence of this idea, curiofity tempting him to hold one of them in his hand for a few minutes, the bird became ftrong enough to fly two or three yards.

Kyrcher fpeaks of a deep cavern high up the Teverone, which the mountaineers told him was never left by the fwallows in winter.

The Rev. Dr. Bofworth obferved five fwallows (or martins) creep out of the wall of Merton College, Oxford, during the month of January, which returned again to their dormitories on the weather becoming colder.

Mr. Hooper, F. R. S. hath informed me, that martins were seen at Christchurch in Hampshire fo late as Christmas, in 1772, when the flies alfo began to be troublefome. I fhall here fubjoin the words of a letter on this fubject from an eye-witnefs, "As my neighbours and felf were standing in the churchyard, we told fourteen on the wing at one time,

near the East end of the church, and could fee others flying about over my houfe, and different parts of the town." Mr. Rickman went home, and immediately wrote the following memorandum in his almanack: Dec. 9. 1772. This day a confiderable number of martins or fwallows were seen

round the church. They were in indefinite numbers (as during the fummer), and flew with as much velocity as at that time of the year. They decreased daily till the 23d of December, after which I have not heard of one being feen,"

I have also received an account of two fwallows or martins appearing on the 21ft of December, in this fame year, viz. 1772, at or near the town of Pool, in Dorfetfhire.

I am laftly informed, by an intelligent fervant of the Right Hon. Mr. Mackenzie, that being with his mafter at Lord Strafford's in Yorkshire, feven or eight years ago, the latter end of October, a converfation began with the gamekeeper about fwallows croffing the feas; which the game-keeper difbelieved, because he faid he could then carry any one to fome neighbouring coalworks, where he was fure of finding them by that time. On this many of the fervants attended him to the coalpits, where several martins were observed in a torpid ftate, but fhewed motions of life upon their being broughtnear to the fire,

Most of thefe inftances are fo well attefted, that I conceive it cannot be difputed by any one, that martins at leaft appear occafionally throughout the winter, whenever the weather is remark

ably

ably mild, and which agrees with what Sir William Hamilton hath informed me, in relation to his fcarcely ever paffing between Naples and Puzzuoli without feeing fome of thefe birds, when the feafon at that time of the year was temperate.

With regard to the third fpecies of fwallows, the fand martin, I have never been able to collect a decifive inftance of their being obferved at all during the winter, though paffibly fometimes not diftinguished from the more common martin; I will not therefore pretend to conjecture what may be their peculiar lurking places, though I conceive that they undoubtedly have fuch. I have however been negatively informed that they are not found in the holes where they make their nefts. This bird is commonly fo diftant from the habitation of man, and is fo much in the dark, that its habits are not easily attended to.

As for the fourth fpecies, called the fawift, which is well known by its fuperior fize, and being almost entirely black, Linnæus af ferts, that it winters in the holes of churches.

I have however the following inftance of their fometimes choof ing other places of concealment.

The Rev. Mr. Williams of Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire found three swifts in the battlements of an old flint tower belonging to that town during the winter, which being brought into a warm room fhewed figns of life, but afterwards hanging them up în a paper bag clofe to the kitchen fire they were either ftifled by the clofenefs of the bag, or killed by the too great heat. See alfo an

They who maintain this opi nion, always fuppofe that thefe birds pafs to the northward upon the approach of fpring, in great flocks; of which however I have not been able to find any inftance in what hath been printed on this fubject, except what is ftated in the Philofophical Tranfactions, of a number having lighted upon the fails of Sir Charles Wager's fleet in the Channel. I flatter myfelf alfo, that I have (in a previous effay) fully anfwered any inferences to be drawn from this relation in fupport of migration; and muft likewife repeat, tha fuch initances mult happen as re-, gularly as the return of the feafons, did fwallows then pass to the northward.

But this is not all, as, if I can depend upon my own obfervations, as well as thofe of others, fwallows fhould, according to this fuppofition, always first appear in flocks on the Southern coaft of this ifland; whereas they are feen but in finall numbers, difperfed F 4

almoft

almoft equally over all parts of it, and if any cold weather happens they then immediately difappear, being obferved in the fame numbers again when the mild weather is more confirmed, and are afterwards joined by myriads from every lurking place and re

treat.

All animals are endowed with a providential inftinct to avoid what may be prejudicial to them, and therefore it fhould feem that the swallow tribe would never leave the coaft of Africa in their fpring migration to the Northward till a month later than they generally appear, as then there would be no occafion for a fudden retreat on the frofts, which are fo frequently experienced in the early parts of our fpring. Lying how ever in their torpid ftate they cannot refift the mild influence of the first genial weather, but know where to fecure themselves when it becomes fevere.

That the fwallow-tribe are concealed during the winter, not far from the place where they have been hatched, may be inferred from the following facts.

Mr. Stephens, F. S. A. hath informed me that martins conti, nued to have a neft for 16 years together in the hall of an old houfe which belongs to him at Camerton in Somerfetfhire, tho' the door was conftantly fhut during the night, and fometimes for a few hours during day-light, when the parent birds must have been not a little impatient to feed their neftlings,

The fame fact hath been at tefted to me by Mr. Sanxay, with regard to the porch of a gentleman's houfe in Derbyshire, though

the birds did not continue to build for fo many years as in the preceding inftance.

The following fact relates to a fwallow which built for two years together on the handles of a pair of garden fheers, that were stuck up against the boards in an outhoufe; and, what is ftranger ftill, another bird of the fame fpecies made its neft on the wings and body of an owl that happened by accident to hang dead, and dry, from the rafter of a barn. This . owl, with the neft on its wings and eggs, was brought to Sir Ahton Lever, who defired the person that furnished him with this curiofity to fix a large fhell where the body of the owl had hung, The perfon did as he was ordered, and the following year a neft was made and eggs laid in the shell by a pair of swallows,

Now it is clear, from these wellattefted inftances, that both martins and swallows choose to build, for a fucceffion of years, in the fame place, though an inconvenient one; and is it to be fuppofed that they conftantly return to the fame fpot from the coaft of Africa, rather than they fhould be torpid during the winter, in no very diftant place of concealment?

But they who maintain that fwallows periodically leave Europe and proceed to Africa, rely much upon their being feen to congre gate not long before they difappear, which happens however with regard to many other birds, and the affemblage confifts of the firft brood, who are left by their parents to shift for themselves, fwallows and martins uniting.

This therefore feems to arife

from