16 On the Arrival and Retreat of British Hir^ndines. 



Art. IV. On the Arrival and Retreat of the British Hirundinesy 

 mth a Table of Arrivals and Departures y Jrom 1800 to 1828. 

 By the Rev. W. T. Bree, M.A. 



It has long been a question among naturalists, and one that 

 has not yet been so fully and satisfactorily answered as could 

 be wished, what becomes of the swallows during the winter, 

 after they have disappeared from our view in the autumn. 

 The opinion adopted by Linnaeus, and other northern natu- 

 ralists, that they retire under water for the winter, if it ever 

 prevailed to any extent among the more intelligent in this 

 country, has, I believe, been long since exploded. Little 

 doubt, I think, need be entertained, that the greater part of 

 them migrate to warmer climates : but do not a few indivi- 

 duals of at least some of the species secrete themselves in this 

 country, and lie in a torpid state during the winter months ? 

 No naturalist, perhaps, ever paid more minute attention to this 

 subject than the celebrated Gilbert White ; and though his 

 diligent and repeated efforts to discover any of these birds in 

 their brumal retirement invariably proved unsuccessful, still 

 the result of his various observations amounts, I believe, to 

 what has just been stated, that while the great body of swal- 

 lows migrate, some few lie dormant, and remain in this coun- 

 try. * There are several circumstances connected both with 

 their first appearance and their departure which tend to con- 

 firm the above opinion. It almost invariably happens that a 

 few individuals of the swallow tribe are to be seen in the early 

 spring (by the beginning of April, or even in March), long 

 before the general flight arrives ; hence the common saying, 

 that " one swallow does not make summer." And, again, a 

 few linger on with us long after the general flight has disap- 

 peared in the autumn. These stragglers, too, both in spring 

 and autumn, frequently withdraw for some days, or even 

 weeks, and then reappear after a considerable interval. " A 

 circumstance, this," as White observes, " much more in favour 

 of hiding than migration ; since it is much more probable that 

 a bird should retire to its hybernaculum just at hand, than 

 return for a week or two only to warmer latitudes." The 

 autumnal stragglers, it is supposed, are weakly birds that have 

 been hatched late in the season ; and they are frequently to be 

 observed flying feebly and heavily about, not with their accus- 

 tomed alacrity. To all appearance, therefore, they seem to 

 be ill calculated to undertake a long journey over the seas, 

 and to encounter the tempestuous weather likely to occur at 

 that late season of the year. Of all our British species the 



* See Hist, of Selborne, Letter xxi. to Thomas Pennant, Esq., and 

 Letter xviii. to the Hon. D. Barrin^ton. 



