HIRUNDO, in ornithology, a genus of birds of the order of passerines. There are twelve species, chiefly distinguished by their colour. The most remarkable are,
1. The domestica, or chimney-swallow, appears in Great Britain near 20 days before the martin, or any other of the swallow tribe. They leave us the latter end of September; and for a few days previous to their departure, they assemble in vast flocks on house-tops, churches, and even trees, from whence they take their flight. It is now known that swallows take their winter-quarters in Senegal, and possibly they may be found along the whole Morocco shore. We
are indebted to M. Adanson for this discovery, who first observed them in the month of October, after their migration out of Europe, on the shores of that kingdom: but whether it was this species alone, or all the European kinds, he is silent.
The name of chimney-swallow may almost be confined to Great Britain; for in several other countries they choose different places for their nests. In Sweden, they prefer barns; so are styled there lada-swallow, or the barn-swallow: and in the hotter climates, they make their nests in porches, gate-ways, galleries, and open halls.
The house-swallow is distinguished from all others by the superior forkiness of its tail, and by the red spot on the forehead and under the chin. The crown of the head, the whole upper-part of the body, and the coverts of the wings, are black, glossed with a rich purplish blue, most resplendent in the male: the breast and belly white, that of the male tinged with red: the tail is black; the two middle feathers are plain, the others marked transversely near their ends with a white spot. The exterior feathers of the tail are much longer in the male than in the female.
Its food is the same with the others of its kind, viz. insects. For the taking of these, in their swiftest flight, nature hath admirably contrived their several parts: their mouths are very wide to take in flies, &c. in their quickest motion; their wings are long, and adapted for distant and continual flight; and their tails are forked, to enable them to turn the reader in pursuit of their prey. This species, in our country, builds in chimneys; and makes its nest of clay mixed with straw, leaving the top quite open. It lines the bottom with feathers and grasses: and usually lays from four to six eggs, white speckled with red; but, by taking away one of the eggs daily, it will successively lay as far as 19, as Dr Litter has experienced. It breeds earlier than any other species. The first brood are observed to quit the nest the last week in June, or the first in July; the last brood towards the middle or end of August. The nest being fixed five or six feet deep within the chimney, it is with difficulty that the young can emerge. They even sometimes fall into the rooms below: but as soon as they succeed, they perch for a few days on the chimney-top, and are there fed by their parents. Their next essay is to reach some leafless bough, where they sit in rows, and receive their food. Soon after they take to the wing, but still want skill to take their own prey. They hover near the place where their parents are in chase of flies, attend their motions, meet them, and receive from their mouths the offered sustenance.—It has a sweet note, which it emits in August and September, perching on house-tops.
2. The urbica, or martin, is inferior in size to the former, and its tail much less forked. The head and upper-part of the body, except the rump, is black glossed with blue: the breast, belly, and rump, are white: the feet are covered with a short white down. This is the second of the swallow-kind that appears in our country. It builds under the eaves of houses, with the same materials, and in the same form, as the house-swallow; only its nest is covered above, having only a small hole for admittance. It will also build against the sides of high cliffs over the sea. For the time.
Hirundo. time that the young keep the nest, the old one feeds them, adhering by the claws to the outside; but as soon as they quit it, she feeds them flying, by a motion quick and almost imperceptible to those who are not used to observe it.
It is a later breed than the preceding by some days, but both will lay twice in the season; and the latter brood of this species have been observed to come forth so late as the 18th of September; yet that year (1766) they entirely quitted our sight by the 5th of October: not but that they sometimes continue here much later; the martins and red-wing thrushes having been seen flying in view on the 7th of November. Nestlings have been remarked in Hampshire as late as the 21st of October, 1772.
3. The riparia, or sand-martin, is the least of the genus that frequents Great Britain. The head and whole upper-part of the body are mouse-coloured; the throat white, encircled with a mouse-coloured ring; the belly white; the feet smooth and black.—It builds in holes in sand-pits, and in the banks of rivers, penetrating some feet deep into the bank, boring through the soil in a wonderful manner with its feet, claws, and bill. It makes its nest of hay, straw, &c. and lines it with feathers; it lays five or six white eggs. It is the earliest of the swallow-tribe in bringing out its young.
4. The apus, or swift, is the largest of our swallows; but the weight is most disproportionately small to its extent of wing of any bird: the former being scarce one ounce, the latter 18 inches. The length near eight. The feet of this bird are so small, that the action of walking and rising from the ground is extremely difficult; so that nature hath made it full amends, by furnishing it with ample means for an easy and continual flight. It is more on the wing than any other swallows; its flight is more rapid, and that attended with a shrill scream. It rests by clinging against some wall, or other apt body; from whence Klein styles this species hirundo muraria. It breeds under the eaves of houses, in steeples, and other lofty buildings; makes its nest of grasses and feathers; and lays only two eggs, of a white colour. It is entirely of a glossy dark footy colour, only the chin is marked with a white spot: but by being so constantly exposed to all weathers, the gloss of the plumage is lost before it retires. A pair of these birds were found adhering by their claws, and in a torpid state, in Feb. 1766, under the roof of Longnor chapel, Shropshire: on being brought to a fire, they revived, and moved about the room. The feet are of a particular structure, all the toes standing forward; the least consists of only one bone; the others of an equal number, viz. two each; in which they differ from those of all other birds.
This appears in our country about 14 days later than the sand-martin; but differs greatly in the time of its departure, retiring invariably about the 10th of August, being the first of the genus that leaves us.
The fabulous history of the manucodiata, or bird of paradise, is, in the history of this species, in great measure verified. It was believed to have no feet; to live upon the celestial dew; to float perpetually on the atmosphere; and to perform all its functions in that element.
The swift actually performs what has been in these enlightened times disapproved of the former, except the small time it takes in sleeping, and what it devotes to incubation; every other action is done on wing. The materials of its nest it collects either as they are carried about by the winds, or picks them up from the surface in its sweeping flight. Its food is undeniably the insects that fill the air. Its drink is taken in transient sips from the water's surface. Even its amorous rites are performed on high. Few persons who have attended to them in a fine summer's morning, but must have seen them make their aerial courses at a great height, encircling a certain space with an easy steady motion. On a sudden they fall into each others embraces, then drop precipitate with a loud shriek for numbers of yards. This is the critical conjuncture; and to be no more wondered at, than that insects (a familiar instance) should discharge the same duty in the same element.
These birds and swallows are inveterate enemies to hawks. The moment one appears, they attack him immediately: the swifts soon desist; but the swallows pursue and persecute those rapacious birds, till they have entirely driven them away.
Swifts delight in sultry thundery weather; and seem thence to receive fresh spirits. They fly at those times in small parties with particular violence; and as they pass near steeples, towers, or any edifices where their mates perform the office of incubation, emit a loud scream, a sort of serenade, as Mr White supposes, to their respective females.
Concerning the disappearance of swallows in the winter, Mr Pennant hath given the following differentiation.
"There are three opinions among naturalists concerning the manner the swallow-tribes dispose of themselves after their disappearance from the countries in which they make their summer residence. Herodotus mentions one species that resides in Egypt the whole year: Prosper Alpinus asserts the same; and Mr Lotten, late governor of Ceylon, assured us, that those of Java never remove. These excepted, every other known kind observe a periodical migration, or retreat. The swallows of the cold Norway, and of North America, of the distant Kamtschatka, of the temperate parts of Europe, of Aleppo, and of the hot Jamaica, all agree in this one point.
"In cold countries, a defect of insect-food on the approach of winter, is a sufficient reason for these birds to quit them: but since the same cause probably does not subsist in the warm climates, recourse should be had to some other reason for their vanishing.
"Of the three opinions, the first has the utmost appearance of probability; which is, that they remove nearer the sun, where they can find a continuance of their natural diet, and a temperature of air suiting their constitutions. That this is the case with some species of European swallows, has been proved beyond contradiction (as above cited) by M. Adanson. We often observe them collected in flocks innumerable on churches, on rocks, and on trees, previous to their departure hence: and Mr Collinson proves their return here in perhaps equal numbers, by two curious relations of undoubted credit; the one communicated to him by Mr Wright, master of a ship; the other by the
Hirundo. the late Sir Charles Wager; who both described (to the same purpose) what happened to each in their voyages. "Returning home, (says Sir Charles), in the spring of the year, as I came into sounding in our channel, a great flock of swallows came and settled on all my rigging; every rope was covered; they hung on one another like a swarm of bees; the decks and carving were filled with them. They seemed almost famished and spent, and were only feathers and bones; but, being recruited with a night's rest, took their flight in the morning." This vast fatigue proves that their journey must have been very great, considering the amazing swiftness of these birds: in all probability they had crossed the Atlantic ocean, and were returning from the shores of Senegal, or other parts of Africa; so that this account from that most able and honest seaman, confirms the later information of M. Adanson.
"Mr White, on Michaelmas day 1768, had the good fortune to have ocular proof of what may reasonably be supposed an actual migration of swallows. Travelling the morning very early between his house and the coast, at the beginning of his journey he was environed with a thick fog; but on a large wild heath the mist began to break, and discovered to him numberless swallows, clustered on the standing bushes, as if they had roosted there: as soon as the sun burst out, they were instantly on wing, and with an easy and placid flight proceeded towards the sea. After this he saw no more flocks, only now and then a straggler.
In Kalm's voyage to America, is a remarkable instance of the distant flight of swallows; for one lighted on the ship he was in, September 2d, when he had passed over only two thirds of the Atlantic ocean. His passage was uncommonly quick, being performed from Deal to Philadelphia in less than six weeks; and when this accident happened, he was fourteen days sail from Cape Hincopen.
"This rendezvous of swallows about the same time of year is very common on the willows, in the little isles in the Thames. They seem to assemble for the same purpose as those in Hampshire, notwithstanding no one yet has been eye-witness of their departure. On the 26th of September 1775, two gentlemen who happened to lie at Maidenhead Bridge, furnished at least a proof of the multitudes there assembled: they went by torch-light to an adjacent isle, and in less than half an hour brought ashore fifty dozen; for they had nothing more to do than to draw the willow-twigs through their hands, the birds never stirring till they were taken.
"The northern naturalists will perhaps say, that this assembly met for the purpose of plunging into their subaqueous winter-quarters: but were that the case, they would never escape discovery in a river perpetually filled as the Thames, as some of them must inevitably be brought up in the nets that harrass that water.
"The second notion has great antiquity on its side. Aristotle and Pliny give it as their belief, that swallows do not remove very far from their summer-habitation, but winter in the hollows of rocks, and during that time lose their feathers. The former part of their opinion has been adopted by several ingenious men; and of late, several proofs have been brought of some
species, at least, having been discovered in a torpid state. Hirundo. Mr Collinson favoured us with the evidence of three gentlemen, eye-witnesses to numbers of sand martins being drawn out of a cliff on the Rhine, in the month of March 1762. And the honourable Daines Barrington communicated to us the following fact, on the authority of the late lord Belhaven. That numbers of swallows have been found in old dry walls, and in sand-hills near his Lordship's seat in East Lothian; not once only, but from year to year; and that when they were exposed to the warmth of a fire, they revived. We have also heard of the same annual discoveries near Morpeth, in Northumberland, but cannot speak of them with the same assurance as the two former: neither in the two last instances are we certain of the particular species.
"Other witnesses crowd on us to prove the residence of those birds in a torpid state during the severe season.
"First, In the chalky cliffs of Sussex; as was seen on the fall of great fragments some years ago.
"Secondly, In a decayed hollow tree that was cut down, near Dolgelli, in Merionethshire.
"Thirdly, In a cliff near Whitby, Yorkshire; where, on digging out a fox, whole bushels of swallows were found in a torpid condition. And,
"Lastly, the reverend Mr Conway, of Sychton, Flintshire, was so obliging as to communicate the following fact: A few years ago, on looking down an old lead-mine in that county, he observed numbers of swallows clinging to the timbers of the shaft, seemingly asleep; and on flinging some gravel on them, they just moved, but never attempted to fly or change their place: this was between All Saints and Christmas.
"These are doubtless the lurking places of the later hatches, or of those young birds, who are incapable of distant migrations. There they continue insensible and rigid; but like flies may sometimes be reanimated by an unseasonable hot day in the midst of winter: for very near Christmas a few appeared on the moulding of a window of Merton college, Oxford, in a remarkably warm nook, which prematurely set their blood in motion, having the same effect as laying them before the fire at the same time of year. Others have been known to make this premature appearance; but as soon as the cold natural to the season returns, they withdraw again to their former retreats.
"I shall conclude with one argument drawn from the very late hatches of two species.
"On the 23d of October 1767, a martin was seen in Southwark, flying in and out of his nest: and on the 29th of the same month, four or five swallows were observed hovering round and settling on the county hospital at Oxford. As these birds must have been of a late hatch, it is highly improbable that at so late a season of the year, they would attempt, from one of our midland counties, a voyage almost as far as the equator to Senegal or Goree: we are therefore confirmed in our notion, that there is only a partial migration of these birds; and that the feeble late hatches conceal themselves in this country.
"The above are circumstances we cannot but assent to, though seemingly contradictory to the common course of nature in regard to other birds. We
Hirundo. must, therefore, divide our belief relating to these two so different opinions; and conclude, that one part of the swallow-tribe migrate, and that others have their winter-quarters near home. If it should be demanded, why swallows alone are found in a torpid state, and not the other many species of soft-billed birds, which likewise disappear about the same time? the following reason may be assigned:
"No birds are so much on the wing as swallows, none fly with such swiftness and rapidity, none are obliged to such sudden and various evolutions in their flight, none are at such pains to take their prey, and, we may add, none exert their voice more incessantly: all these occasion a vast expence of strength and of spirits, and may give such a texture to the blood as other animals cannot experience; and so dispose, or we may say necessitate, this tribe of birds, or part of them at least, to a repose more lasting than that of any others.
"The third notion is, even at first sight, too amazing and unnatural to merit mention, if it was not that some of the learned have been credulous enough to deliver for fact, what has the strongest appearance of impossibility; we mean the relation of swallows passing the winter immersed under ice, at the bottom of lakes, or lodged beneath the water of the sea at the foot of rocks. The first who broached this opinion, was Olaus Magnus, archbishop of Upsal, who very gravely informs us, that these birds are often found in clustered masses at the bottom of the northern lakes, mouth to mouth, wing to wing, foot to foot; and that they creep down the reeds in autumn, to their subaqueous retreats: That when old fishermen discover such a mass, they throw it into the water again; but when young inexperienced ones take it, they will, by thawing the birds at a fire, bring them indeed to the use of their wings, which will continue but a very short time, being owing to a premature and forced revival.
"That the good archbishop did not want credulity in other instances, appears from this, that after having stocked the bottoms of the lakes with birds, he stores the clouds with mice, which sometimes fall in plentiful showers on Norway and the neighbouring countries.
"Some of our own countrymen have given credit to the submergence of swallows; and Klein patronises the doctrine strongly, giving the following history of their manner of retiring, which he received from some countrymen and others. They asserted, that sometimes the swallows assembled in numbers on a reed, till it broke and sunk with them to the bottom; and their immersion was preceded by a dirge of a quarter of an hour's length: That others would unite in laying hold of a straw with their bills, and so plunge down in society. Others again would form a large mass, by clinging together with their feet, and so commit themselves to the deep.
"Such are the relations given by those that are fond of this opinion; and though delivered without exaggeration, must provoke a smile. They assign not the smallest reason to account for these birds being able to endure so long a submergence without being suffocated, or without decaying, in an element so unnatural to so delicate a bird; when we know that the
otter, the corvorum, and the grebes, soon perish, if caught under ice, or entangled in nets: and it is well known, that those animals will continue much longer under water than any others to whom nature hath denied that particular structure of heart necessary for a long residence beneath that element. Though entirely satisfied in our own mind of the impossibility of these relations; yet, desirous of strengthening our opinion with some better authority, we applied to that able anatomist, Mr John Hunter; who was so obliging as to inform us, that he had dissected many swallows, but found nothing in them different from other birds as to the organs of respiration: That all those animals which he had dissected of the class that sleep during winter, such as lizards, frogs, &c. had a very different conformation as to those organs: That all these animals, he believes, do breathe in their torpid state; and, as far as his experience reaches, he knows they do: and that therefore he esteems it a very wild opinion, that terrestrial animals can remain any long time under water without drowning."
To this reasoning of Mr Pennant's, however, the following answer hath appeared in Kalm's travels in North America.—"It has been a subject of contest among naturalists, to determine the winter-retreat of swallows. Some think they go to warmer climates when they disappear in the northern countries: others say, they creep into hollow trees, and holes in clefts of rocks, and lie there all the winter in a torpid state: and others affirm, that they make their retreat into water, and revive again in spring. The two first opinions have been proved, and it seems have found credit; the last has been treated as ridiculous, and almost as an old woman's tale. Natural history, as all other histories, depends not always upon the intrinsic degree of probability, but upon facts founded on the testimony of people of noted veracity.—Swallows are seldom seen sinking down into the water; swallows have not such organs as frogs or lizards, which are torpid during winter; ergo, swallows live not, and cannot live, under water.—This way of arguing, I believe, would carry us, in a great many cases, too far; for, though it is not clear to every one, it may however be true; and lizards and frogs are animals of a class widely different from that of birds, and must therefore of course have a different structure; hence it is they are classed separately. The bear and the marmot are in winter in a torpid state, and have however not such organs as lizards and frogs; and nobody doubts of their being, during some time, in the most rigid climates, in a torpid state: for the Alpine nations hunt the marmots frequently, by digging their holes up; and find them so torpid, that they cut their throats, without their reviving or giving the least sign of life during the operation; but when the torpid marmot is brought into a warm room, and placed before the fire, it revives from its lethargy. The question must therefore be decided by facts; nor are these wanting here. Dr Wallerius, the celebrated Swedish chemist, informs us, That he has seen, more than once, swallows assembling on a reed, till they were all immersed and went to the bottom; this being preceded by a dirge of a quarter of an hour's length. He attests likewise, that he had seen a swallow caught during winter out of a lake with a net, drawn, as is com-
Hirundo. common in northern countries, under the ice; this bird was brought into a warm room, revived, fluttered about, and soon after died.
"Mr Klein applied to many fermiers generaux of the king of Prussia's domains, who had great lakes in their districts, the fishery in them being a part of the revenue. In winter the fishery thereon is the most considerable under the ice, with nets spreading more than 200 or 300 fathoms, and they are often wound by screews and engines on account of their weight. All the people questioned made affidavits upon oath before the magistrates. First, The mother of the countess Lehndorf said, that she had seen a bundle of swallows brought from the Frisch-Haff, (a lake communicating with the Baltic at Pillaw), which, when brought into a moderately warm room, revived and fluttered about. Secondly, Count Schileben gave an instrument on stamped paper, importing, that by fishing on the lake belonging to his estate of Gerdauen in winter, he saw several swallows caught in the net, one of which he took up with his hand, brought it into a warm room, where it lay about an hour, when it began to stir, and half an hour after it flew about in the room. Thirdly, Fermier-general (Amtman) Witkowski made affidavit, that, in the year 1740, three swallows were brought up with the net in the great pond at Didlacken; in the year 1741, he got two swallows from another part of the pond, and took them home (they being all caught in his presence;) after an hour's space they revived all in a warm room, fluttered about, and died in three hours after. Fourthly, Amtman Bönke says, that having had the estate Klekow in farm, he had seen nine swallows brought up in the net from under the ice, all which he took into a warm room, where he distinctly observed how they gradually revived; but a few hours after they all died. Another time his people got likewise some swallows in a net, but he ordered them to be again thrown into the water. Fifthly, Andrew Rutta, a master fisherman at Oletsko, made affidavit, in 1747, that 22 years ago, two swallows were taken up by him in a net, under the ice, and, being brought into a warm room, they flew about.—Sixthly, Jacob Kosiulo, a master fisherman at Stradauen, made affidavit, that, in 1736, he brought up in winter, in a net, from under the ice of the lake at Raske, a seemingly dead swallow, which revived in half an hour's time in warm room, and he saw, in a quarter of an hour after, the bird grow weaker, and soon after dying. Seventhly, I can reckon myself among the eye-witnesses of this paradoxon of natural history. In the year 1735, being a little boy, I saw several swallows brought in winter by fishermen, from the river Vitula, to my father's house; where two of them were brought into a warm room, revived, and flew about. I saw them several times settling on the warm stove (which the northern nations have in their rooms); and I recollect well, that the same forenoon they died, and I had them, when dead, in my hand. In the year 1754, after the death of my uncle Godefroy Wolf, captain in the Polish regiment of foot-guards; being myself one of his heirs, I administered for my co-heirs, several estates called the Starosty of Dischau, in Polish Prussia, which my late uncle farmed under the king. In January, the lake of Lyb-
shaw, belonging to these estates, being covered with ice, I ordered the fishermen to fish therein, and in my presence several swallows were taken, which the fishermen threw in again; but one I took up to myself, brought it home, which was five miles from thence, and it revived, but died about an hour after its reviving.
"These are facts, attested by people of the highest quality, by some in public offices, and by others who, tho' of a low rank, however made these affidavits upon oath. It is impossible to suppose indiscriminately, that they were prompted, by views of interest, to assert as a fact, a thing which had no truth in it. It is therefore highly probable, or rather incontestably true, that swallows retire in the northern countries during winter, into the water, and stay there in a torpid state, till the return of warmth revives them again in spring. The question therefore, I believe, ought for the future to be thus stated: The swallows in Spain, Italy, France, and perhaps some from England, remove to warmer climates; some English ones, and some in Germany and other mild countries, retire into clefts and holes in rocks, and remain there in a torpid state. In the colder northern countries the swallows immerse in the sea, in lakes, and rivers; and remain in a torpid state, under ice, during winter. There are still some objections to this latter assertion, which we must remove. It is said, Why do not rapacious fish, and aquatic quadrupeds and birds, devour these swallows? The answer is obvious. Swallows choose only such places in the water for their winter-retreat, as are near reeds and rushes; so that sinking down there between them and their roots, they are by them secured against the rapaciousness of their enemies. But others object, Why are not these birds caught in such waters as are continually harassed by nets? I believe the same answer which has been made to the first objection will serve for this likewise. Fishermen take care to keep off with their nets from places filled with reeds and rushes, for fear of entangling and tearing their net; and thus the situation of swallows under water, is the reason that they are seldom disturbed in their silent winter-retreats. What confirms this opinion still more is, that swallows were never caught in Prussia, according to the above-mentioned affidavits, but with those parts of the net which passed near to the reeds and rushes; and sometimes the swallows were yet fastened with their feet to a reed, when they were drawn up by the net. As to the argument taken from their being so long under water without corruption, I believe, there is a real difference between animals suffocated in water and animals being torpid therein. We have examples of things being a long time under water; to which we may add the intense cold of these northern regions, which preserves them. Who would have thought it, that snails and polypes may be dissected, and could reproduce the parts severed from their body, if it was not a fact? Natural history ought to be studied as a collection of facts, not as the history of our guesses or opinions. Nature varies in an infinite manner; and Providence has diversified the instinct of animals and their economy, and adapted it to the various seasons and climates."