380 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



which this was meant to be understood, it agrees with my observa- 

 tion ; but I have occasionally at different periods during their stay, 

 seen swallows on wing at so late an hour that they could hardly be 

 distinguished. This occurred more especially throughout the month 

 of June 1832, which was remarkably cold and wet. On several 

 evenings towards the end of the month I saw swallows fly about at a 

 quarter past nine p.m. The wants of the nesthngs doubtless prompted 

 this late flight, and if my informant be correct, it was in some in- 

 stances of no avail, as during this time he saw young swallows fall 

 dead from the nest, owing, it was conjectured, to starvation, and this 

 too in a locality where food should have been comparatively abun- 

 dant. On the 12th of June 1838, I observed a swallow flying about 

 Wolfhill at half-past nine o'clock in the evening. The day through- 

 out had been moderately warm, without rain. 



When wind and weather are favourable for migration, swallows, 

 including many of the first brood, leave us from the end of August, 

 but about the middle of September is the chief time of their depart- 

 ure. On to the middle of October some are seen every year. Mr. 

 Templeton notes his having observed a few on the 30th and 31st of 

 October 1813 ; on the 14th of November 1815, I am informed that 

 one was repeatedly seen flying about Stranmillis near Belfast, where 

 likewise, on the 28th of October 1819, three were seen after a severe 

 fall of snow and a good deal of frost ; in 1835, one was remarked on 

 the 26th of October near the town just named ; and on the 3rd of 

 November 1837, Mr. H. H. Dombrain of Dublin shot one at sea 

 near Lambay island, when it was flying towards land *. 



Variety in plumage. — ^Very rarely do we see any departure from the 

 ordinary colour in the swallow. The Rev. G. M. Black states, that 

 in the month of July 1815, a pure-white one was seen flying about 

 Stranmillis near Belfast, for about ten days. 



In the years 1811,1812 and 1813, when my friend Dr. J. L. Drum- 

 mond of Belfast was surgeon of H.M.S. San Juan, then anchored 

 close to the New Mole at Gibraltar, he every year, both in spring 

 and autumn, saw " swallows " (the species of which is not now re- 

 membered) every day during a few weeks at the former season flying 

 northward, and at the latter southward. They kept flying through- 

 out the day, and invariably in autumn as well as spring were in 

 little parties, not more than three or four being generally togetherf- 

 In the course of a tour made in the year 1841, the swallow was seen 

 as follows : — On descending the Rhone from Lyons to Avignon, 



* Observations made during a number of years (and occasionally daily) 

 on the proceedings of the swallow preparatory to migration from the north of 

 Ireland, together with the state of wind, weather, food, &c., here follow in 

 my manuscript, but they are withheld, as without them, there is doubtless 

 sufficient matter upon one species ! 



t Capt. Cook, in his * Sketches in Spain,' remarks of the Hirundo rustica, 

 that " afew 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]." 



