SWALLOWS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8482, 13 May 1893, Page 4

SWALLOWS.

to the editor of thb press. Sir, —I am delighted at the prospect of once more seeing a swallow. You said in your Topics of yesterday/"It was a theory firmly fixed in the minds of some of the old writers that some of the birds remained in England in a torpid state during the cold weather." I will give you an instance of that fact. About sixty years ago I well remember that an immense quantity of swallows were found in a stack in winter in a torpid state, and the great wonder was how such a quantity could have found their way into the very centre of a stack without showing any signs of egress. When a boy I was well acquainted with the habits of swallows during their preparations for migration to a warmer climate; swarms of them would collect together, and their circuit manoeuvres and chattering to one another on the house tops were very interesting to us boys, and we knew to a day when they would take their final departure. On the return of the spring the birds, as regularly as clockwork, would return to their old nesting place. In those days of grace our grandmothers taught us not to disturb a swallow's nest or harm a robin red breast; thus we were established in the faith.—Yours, &c, Wm. Parker. Clare street, May 11th, 1893.