On the Arrival and Retreat of British Jriirundines. 17 



sand marten is the one which we should naturally expect to 

 be the most likely to hide during the winter in the deep 

 recesses of banks, in which it makes its nest.* And, accord- 

 ingly, this is, occasionally at least, the earliest which makes its 

 appearance in the spring. White, indeed, says that the 

 house swallow comes first ; but the earliest appearance I find 

 recorded in his calendar is of the sand marten on the 21st of 

 March. In two several seasons I have observed the sand 

 marten on the 3 1 st of that month ; once in Cornwall, and once 

 in this neighbourhood, as appears by the following table, under 

 the years 1818 and 1822. I have been informed by an intel- 

 ligent friend, accustomed to pay attention to these birds, that 

 a house swallow once took up its residence, late in the autumn, 

 within St. Mary's Church, at Warwick, and was regularly 

 observed there by the congregation until Christmas eve, after 

 which it disappeared, and was seen no more. And, a few 

 years since, I heard of one making its appearance, in the 

 middle of winter, about the old mansion at Wroxall, in this 

 county, but to which species this bird belonged I was unable 

 to ascertain. The above facts, however far they may fall short 

 of positive proof, undoubtedly afford much probability to 

 White's opinion, that the i^irundines do not all leave this 

 island in the winter. At the same time, if this be the case 

 (a case, too, which, if it occur at all, occurs, we may suppose, 

 every year), it certainly is extraordinary that these birds 

 should never, either by accident or design, have been dis- 

 covered, while dormant in their winter quarters. And of such 

 discovery I am not aware that any instance has been adduced 

 sufficiently well authenticated to be relied on. 



The swift (i^irundoyi pus), lam inclined to think, does not 

 hide with us, but is altogether migratory. Its appearance in 

 the spring is more simultaneous than that of the other Hivim- 

 dines, few of this species being to be seen much before the 

 general flight makes its appearance. It retires, for the most 

 part, by the middle of August or earlier, and does not visit us 

 again till towards the end of April or the beginning of May. 

 Now it seems hardly probable that a bird of such matchless 

 powers of wing, whose entire occupation, save only when en- 

 gaged in rest and incubation, is carried on in the air, should be 

 doomed to spend more than two thirds of the year in a state of 

 inactivity. Nor, again, is it likely that this species would 

 retire so early in the season as it does, if it were for the pur- 



* White, however, observes that " these birds do not make use of their 

 caverns by way of hybernacula." (Letter xx. to the Hon. D. Barrington.) 

 Possibly they may occasionally do so, nevertheless, though he failed^ to 

 discover them in those situations. . . . 



Vol. II. — No. 6. c 



