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  • Hibernating Hirundines March 19, 2012

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Hibernating Hirundines

    Beach gave some publicity, a couple of years ago, to the question of swallows and other hirundines sleeping in the winter rather than migrating. It is all a lot of burnt toffee, of course, but entertaining and it represents a last stand of the ‘old’ country against the ‘new’ science: men in pitchfork marching up […]

    The mystery of the hibernating hirundines October 31, 2010

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The mystery of the hibernating hirundines

    Humans create ideas to explain natural phenomenon. Most of these explanations are worth little more than the cinders that Beachcombing nightly sweeps up from the fire. These explanations are then superseded by other explanations – that typically bear as little relation to truth – and so knowledge marches heroically on… Inevitably, though some branches of […]