Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . ca. So this modest little band is entitled to our respectas a traveler at least; and to compare the habits and ap-pearance of the representatives in different portions of theglobe becomes a most interesting study. 3. Under the name of bank-swallow, sand-swallow,sand-martin, it is found throughout the northern hemi-sphere wherever the localities are favorable for buildingtheir nests. In this distribution they seem to have beeninfluenced by man, though owing him no other favors thanthe incidental
Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . ca. So this modest little band is entitled to our respectas a traveler at least; and to compare the habits and ap-pearance of the representatives in different portions of theglobe becomes a most interesting study. 3. Under the name of bank-swallow, sand-swallow,sand-martin, it is found throughout the northern hemi-sphere wherever the localities are favorable for buildingtheir nests. In this distribution they seem to have beeninfluenced by man, though owing him no other favors thanthe incidental help of railroad cuttings and sand-pits,which have increased the sites suitable for excavating, andhave enabled them to spread inland. 4. Where these and other swallows spend the winterwas a hotly debated question among ornithologists at thebeginning of the present century, some affirming that they 226 NATURAL HISTORY READER. migrated with the sun, while others, believing it impossiblethat such small and delicate birds could endure the greatfatigue and temperatures incident to such a migration,. inlc-Swalknvs and their Nests. held that they regularly hibernated, during the cold weath-er, sinking into the mud at the bottom of ponds, likefrogs, or curling up in deep, warm crannies, like bats, andremaining torpid until revived by the warmth of spring. OTHER NEIGHBORS IN THE TREES. 227 5. Of this latter opinion was White, of Selborne, whoalludes to it again and again, and Sir Thomas Forster wrotea • Monograph of British Swallows, apparently with noother object than to present the arguments for and againstthe theory of their annual submersion and torpidity. Oneof the difficulties which the submersionists put in the wayof the migrationists was the frequent accidental and iso-lated appearance of the swallow before its usual time—a factthat has, in nearly every language, given rise to the proverb,One swallow does not make a summer. The story iswell known of a thin brass plate havin
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