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



XI. — The Birds of Ireland. By Wm. Thompson, Esq., Vice- 

 Pres. Nat. Hist. Society of Belfast. 



[Continued from vol. ix. p. 381.] 



No. 13. — Hirundinida (continued). 



The House Martin, Hirundo urbica, Linn., is much more 

 choice in his haunts than the swallow, and consequently is by 

 no means so generally distributed over Ireland : in some of 

 the less improved districts it may even be called a local spe- 

 cies*. 



This species is, according to my observation, invariably later in its 

 arrival in the north of Ireland than either the sand martin or the 

 swallow, and generally appears about the middle of April f. 



The "trim and neat" style of the generality of houses erected in 

 the north of Ireland of late years does not present such facility for 

 the nests of the martin as that of an older date, not only the " but- 

 tress and coign of vantage" being wanting, but the less feudal, though 

 to the martin equally useful appendage — the antiquated holdfast of 

 the wooden spout, upon which its mud fabric was wont to be raised, 

 and which afforded "ample room and verge enough" for the nest 

 between its base and the spout that it supported. When in Bally- 

 mena in July 1833, 1 observed the predilection of the martin for the 

 older houses to be so strongly marked, that against those in the older 

 part of the town their nests were numerous, while not one was to be 

 seen about any of the erections of late years. With reference to this 

 propensity a second instance may be mentioned, which at the same 

 time suggests another cause that to a certain extent influences the 

 choice of site — that the martin is prone to return to its birth-place J. 

 During a week's stay in the summer of 1833 in 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 Scotland, on the other hand, the house martin, according to Mr. 

 MacgilKvray, "is more widely dispersed" than the swallow. — British Birds, 

 vol. iii. p. 575. 



f Mr. Blackwall states that the average time of the martin's appearance 

 at Manchester is the 25th of April, as that of the swallow is the 15th of the 

 same month. It is observed by Mr. Hepburn, that " the house martin ar- 

 rives 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." 



X Mr. Jesse, in the second series of his ' Gleanings in Natural History,' 

 gives the following extract from the unpublished journal of White of Sel- 

 borne: — " 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 friend has remarked that a nest built against a spout-head in York-street, 

 Belfast, was occupied for four years successively. By Capt. King, R.N., 

 and Mr. Weir, it has been proved that the same birds return annually to 

 the same locality. — See Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. p. 592. 



