:

seen flying about Stranmillis near Belfast, during ten days. In the same month of 1819, one of that colour was killed in Down or Antrim in Donegal another has been obtained.* One was remarked throughout the summer of 1833 (?) at Portaferry, co. Down. It returned in the following season to the same place, but no white or pied progeny appeared in either year. A brood of four pure-white swallows was reared in the summer of 1838 in an outhouse at Hillsborough Park, in the last named county:-white ferrets (Mustela furo) inhabited the ground floor just beneath this nest. In the autumn of 1843 (?) a white individual was observed flying about in company with a number of other swallows near Dublin; and in the same season, another appeared in the glens, co. Antrim.† In the summer of 1848, varieties occurred in three instances near Belfast. One of a very pale whitish-fawn colour was taken from a nest in Malone; another, a young bird of the year, was presented to the Museum by Richard Bateson, Esq., of Belvoir Park:-it is of a light fawn colour of various shades; the wings and tail being almost white on the upper surface. In the old court-house, Newtownards, a nest of what were called "white swallows" was procured. I have always remarked that in particular seasons, birds are more prone to assume variety in the colour of their plumage than in others. I was not therefore surprised at the receipt of the following note from Mr. R. Chute, of Blennerville, Kerry in Oct. 1848:—“I got a very pretty swallow lately; its body, head, and all the under parts buff; the wings and tail white. It was shot near Listowel: I think it is this year's bird."

Departure. When wind and weather are favourable for migration, swallows, including many of the first brood, leave the neighbourhood of Belfast towards the end of August, but about the middle of September is the chief time of their departure. Until the middle of October some remain every year. Mr. Templeton notes his having observed a few on the 30th and 31st of October, 1813. On the 14th of November, 1815, one was repeatedly seen flying about Stranmillis near Belfast, where also on the 28th of October, 1819, three appeared after a severe fall of snow and + Mr. J. R. Garrett.

* Mr. J. V. Stewart.

a good deal of frost. In 1835 a swallow was remarked on the 26th Oct. near the town just named; and on the 3rd of Nov., 1837, Mr. H. Dombrain of Dublin shot one at sea near Lambay Island, when it was flying towards land. For several days during the week immediately before Christmas-from the 18th to the 24th Dec.— 1842, a number of swallows were seen about the village of Holy-. wood and elsewhere on the borders of Belfast bay, where from the novelty of their occurrence at such a season they excited much interest. The latest period at which these birds have been observed by Mr. Poole in the south, was on the 5th of December, the same year, when he saw two fly above the main street in Wexford, the weather being moist, and remarkably warm for the season:―he has not met with them there after the 10th of Nov., (1844) on any other occasion. On the 28th of November, 1845, an adult bird was seen on the border of Belfast bay. In 1846, a swallow was observed at an inland locality near the town, and on the 16th and 17th of the month, single birds appeared at different places near the margin of the bay. At the end of November, 1847, one was remarked at Castle Warren, co. Cork.

Seen on migration; on the Continent, &c. In the years 1811, 1812, and 1813, when my friend Dr. J. L. Drummond, of Belfast, was surgeon in H.M.S. San Juan, then anchored close to the New Mole at Gibraltar, he each year, both in spring and autumn, saw "swallows" (the species of which is not now remembered) every day during a few weeks at the former season flying northward, and at the latter southward. They kept flying throughout the day, and invariably in autumn as well as spring were in little parties, not more than three or four being generally together.* In the course of a tour which I made in the year

a

* Capt. Cook, in his Sketches in Spain, remarks of the Hirundo rustica, that " few of these birds winter in the south of Andalusia. I saw them on the summit of the Lomo de Vaca, far from the haunt of man, living with the H. rupestris "-a species which, according to the same author, "winters in great numbers along the southern shore [of Spain]." Dr. Wilde states that when in the desert between the pyramids of Gaza and Dashoor at the end of January," the swallow tribe were in great plenty; the red-breasted swallow and the small grey martin particularly attracted our notice. I find that these little birds do not migrate like the swifts (which, however, do not approach this part of the country,) but remain all the year round in the vicinity of the pyramids."- -Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, the Mediterranean, including a visit to Egypt, &c., 2nd Ed. p. 252.

1841, the swallow was seen as follows:-On descending the Rhone from Lyons to Avignon, some appeared on the 9th of April at several places, but were nowhere numerous. On the 13th of that month, a very few were observed between Leghorn and Pisa. At Malta, on the 17th, they were as abundant as we ever behold them in the British islands. On the passage of H.M.S. Beacon, from Malta to the Morea, two swallows flew on board on the 22nd of April, when the vessel was about forty miles east of Malta; on the 25th, when nearly fifty miles from Calabria, several appeared; towards the evening of the next day, not less than a dozen alighted on the vessel, and after remaining all night, took their departure early on the morning of the 27th, when ninety miles west of the Morea: throughout the afternoon and towards the evening of the same day (at sunset we were about sixty miles from the Morea) many more arrived, and all that came having remained, they appeared towards the close of day flying around the ship in considerable numbers.* On our arrival at Navarino, on the 28th, the swallow was observed to be common, as it likewise was, in the following month, in the island of Syra, at Smyrna and Constantinople: in June, about the island of Paros, at Athens and Patras; in July, at Venice, Verona, Milan, &c. At Trieste, where I spent ten days at the end of June, no swallows were observed, although house-martins and swifts were abundant; my not seeing them however, may have been accidental. When crossing the Splugen into Switzerland, on the 10th of July, 1841, swallows were seen flying about when we were at a great altitude. About none of the southern or eastern localities mentioned, nor in Holland, France, Switzerland, and Italy, are swallows, housemartins, sand-martins or swifts, more numerous, than in the north of Ireland, or the British islands generally.

I never met with swallows more plentiful anywhere than they were on the 16th of May, flying over extremely rich lowlysituated pastures, in which some of the Sultan's stud were grazing, between Constantinople and the village of Belgrade.—On the 14th

* In the brig “ Margaret Miller," belonging to the port of Belfast, a swallow was taken in October, 1833, two hundred miles to the westward of Cape Clear, the most southern point of Ireland.

of June, the young were all but fledged at Patras. At this date, they are in favourable seasons equally far advanced in the north of Ireland.---The only localities from which, in the midst of summer, I ever remarked all the Hirundinida to be absent, were the south islands of Arran, off Galway bay. Not an individual of any of the species was seen here by Mr. R. Ball or myself, when visiting the islands on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of July, 1834, the weather being all the time very fine. Returning from them, we had no sooner reached the coast of Clare,-the nearest land,than many of the H. rustica were observed.

In the later editions of Bewick's British Birds, a highly interesting account of the familiarity of the swallow in confinement, appears in a letter from the Rev. Walter Trevelyan.

THE HOUSE-MARTIN.

Hirundo urbica, Linn.

Is a regular summer visitant.

BEING much more choice in the selection of haunts than the swallow, it is by no means so generally distributed over the island; and in some of the less improved districts, may even be called a local species. In Scotland, according to Mr. Macgillivray, the house martin "is more widely dispersed" than the swallow.-Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 575.

In the north of Ireland according to my observation, the housemartin is invariably later in its arrival than either the sand-martin or the swallow. It generally appears about the middle of April.* The "trim and neat" style of the generality of houses, erected

* Mr. Blackwall states, that the average time of the martin's appearance at Manchester, is the 25th of April, and that of the swallow, the 15th of the same month. It is observed by Mr. Hepburn, that "the house-martin arrives at the village of Linton on the Tyne, in the last week of April, though in 1839, a few were seen by the 17th of that month."-Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. p. 580. In the same work, p. 592, it is mentioned, on the authority of David Falconer, Esq., "that for the very long period of forty successive years, a pair of them had come to Carlowrie, either upon the 22nd or 23rd of April,"

in the north of Ireland of late years, does not present such favourable sites for the nests of the martin, as that of an older date. Not only the "buttress and coign of vantage" are wanting, but the less feudal, though to the martin equally useful appendage,— the antiquated holdfast of the wooden spout, is now disused. Upon this the mud fabric was wont to be raised, ample room being afforded for the nest between its base and the spout which it supported. When in Ballymena, in July, 1833, I observed the predilection of the martin for the older houses to be so strongly marked, that against those in the more ancient part of the town, their nests were numerous, while not one was to be seen about any of the modern erections. With reference to this propensity, an instance may be mentioned, which suggests another cause, that influences the choice of site;-namely, the martin's being prone to return to its birth-place.* During a week's stay in the summer of 1833, at the picturesque sea-bathing village of Portstewart (co. Londonderry), which had been lately built, not one of these martins appeared, though the place was in many respects peculiarly suited to them. Although their abode was not taken up there, yet in the high and time-worn precipices which rise above the ocean at only a short distance to the eastward of the village, these birds were always to be seen. Particularly graceful they appeared, when gliding to and from their nests, placed beneath the summit of the stupendous basaltic arch that pierces the isolated mass of rock on which the ruins of a castle are situated.

This Hirundo is so partial to the noble basaltic precipices— rising directly above, or contiguous to the sea-which form the leading features of the north-east coast of Ireland, that it is always to be seen about them during the more genial seasons of

* Mr. Jesse, in the second series of his Gleanings in Natural History, gives the following extract from the unpublished journal of White of Selborne :-" July 6, 1783. Some young martins came out of the nest over the garden door. This nest was built in 1777, and has been used ever since." A nest built against a spout-head in York-street, Belfast, was occupied for four years successively. It has been proved by Capt. King, R.N., and Mr. Weir, that the same birds return annually to the same locality. See Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. p. 592.