Surgery, s. The art of curing by manual operations.
Suture, s. A manner of sewing or stitching, particularly wounds.
Swallow (Hirundo, Auctores), s. A genus of perchers (Insessores, Vigors), of which we have three species natives—the bank, the chimney, and the window swallow.
Swallow, s. A small bird of passage, or, as some say, a bird that lies hid and sleeps in winter.
Swallows are found in every country of the known world, but seldom remain the whole year in the same climate; the times of their appearance and departure in this country are well known: they are the constant harbingers of Spring, and on their arrival all nature assumes a more cheerful aspect. The bill of this genus is short, very broad at the base, and a little bent: the head is flat, and the neck scarcely visible; the tongue is short, broad, and cloven; tail mostly forked; wings, legs short.
Of all the various families of birds, which resort to this island for food and shelter, there is none which has occasioned so many conjectures respecting its appearance and departure as the swallow tribe. The habits and modes of living of this tribe are perhaps more conspicuous than those of any other. From the time of their arrival to that of their departure they seem continually before our eyes.
The swallow lives habitually in the air, and performs its various functions in that element; and whether it pursues its fluttering prey, and follows the devious windings of the insects on which it feeds, or endeavours to escape the birds of prey by the quickness of its motion, it describes lines so mutable, so varied, so interwoven, and so confused, that they hardly can be pictured by words.
Not many attempts have been made to preserve swallows alive during the winter, and of these few have succeeded. The following experiments, by Mr. James Pearson of London, we shall give nearly in his own words.
Five or six of these birds were taken about the latter end of August, 1784, in a bat fowling-net, at night; they were put separately into small cages, and fed with nightingales’ food; in about a week or ten days they took food of themselves; they were then put altogether into a deep cage, four feet long, with gravel at the bottom; a broad shallow pan with water was placed in it, in which they sometimes washed themselves, and seemed much strengthened by it. One day Mr. Pearson observed that they went into the water with unusual eagerness, hurrying in and out again repeatedly, with such swiftness as if they had been suddenly seized with a frenzy. Being anxious to see the result, he left them to themselves about half an hour, and on going to the cage again, found them all huddled together in a corner, apparently dead; the cage was then placed at a proper distance from the fire, when only two of them recovered, and were as healthy as before; the rest died. The two remaining ones were allowed to wash themselves occasionally for a short time only; but their feet soon after became swelled and inflamed, which Mr. P. attributed to their perching, and they died about Christmas; thus the first year’s experiment was in some measure lost. Not discouraged by the failure of this, Mr. P. determined to make a second trial the succeeding year, from a strong desire of being convinced of the truth respecting their going into a state of torpidity. Accordingly, the next season, having taken some more birds, he put them into the cage, and in every respect pursued the same methods as with the last; but to guard their feet from the bad effects of damp and cold, he covered the perches with flannel, and had the pleasure to observe that the birds throve extremely well; they sung their song through the winter, and soon after Christmas began to moult, which they got through without any difficulty, and lived three or four years, regularly moulting every year at the usual time. On the renewal of their feathers, it appeared that their tails were forked exactly the same as in those birds which return hither in the spring, and in every respect their appearance was the same. These birds, says Mr. Pearson, were exhibited to the Society for promoting Natural History, on the 14th day of February, 1786, at the time they were in a deep moult, during a severe frost, when the snow was on the ground. Minutes of this circumstance was entered in the books of the society. These birds died at last from neglect, during a long illness which Mr. Pearson had; they died in the summer. Mr. Pearson concludes his very interesting account in these words:—January 20, 1797. I have now in my house, No. 21, Great Newport-street, Long Acre, four swallows in moult, in as perfect health as any birds ever appeared to be when moulting.—Bewick.
Swallow, v. To take down the throat; to ingulf.