34:0 Arrival of British Summer Birds, 



Tree pipits (^'nthus arboreus), also, arrived on April 4., 

 being the same day on which I have first noticed them for 

 three successive years. The following day they were abun- 

 dant. Speaking of the genus v4'nthus, Mr. Selby observes, 

 that the species " appear subject to a trifling change of plumage 

 in the spring, confined principally to the region of the head 

 and throat." From observations which I have made on these 

 birds, both in confinement and in the wild state, I find that 

 the members of this genus, and also of Budytes and Motacilla, 

 undergo in the spring a complete change of plumage, with 

 the exception of the quill and tail feathers. Even the wing 

 coverts and the scapulars are all changed. 



6th. 1 heard a wryneck (Yunx Torquilla), on Clap- 

 ham Common : on the 7th these were very plentiful. [In 

 1833, the wryneck was heard at Bury St. Edmunds on 

 April 7.] 



7th. A single chimney swallow was seen, being probably 

 the same individual that was noticed on April 4. Observed 

 several willow wrens (Sylvia Trochilus), and chiffchafFs 

 (S. loquax). These last have generally been described to 

 come over in the middle of March; but I rather question 

 whether those that have migrated are ever heard before the 

 first week in April. Two chifFchaffs remained throughout 

 last winter in Earl Spencer's park at Wimbledon. In the 

 Field Naiuralisfs Magazine for last April, p. 217., a corre- 

 spondent from Penzance mentions that a few willow wrens 

 remain in that neighbourhood throughout the year ; and as, 

 in a previous communication, he makes mention of the chiiF- 

 chaffi he is doubtless correct with regard to the species. 



10th. Heard, for the first time, this morning the long 



Taunton, March 29. Swallows appeared, on April 7., at Dorchester; and 

 at Stanley Green, on April 19. There were, on May 1., martins hatched, 

 and full fledged, at Spalding, Lincolnshire; and martins were building at 

 Stanley Green on May 2. The Rev. W. O. Bartlett, Vicar of Great ('an- 

 ford, near Wimborne, Dorsetshire, saw twelve swallows in that parish on 

 Oct. 29. 1833. The last swallows seen here, in the parish of Longfleet, 

 were two seen by Mr. A. Kemp, on Nov, 15. A brood of martins, the 

 produce of a second hatch, had taken flight two days before. After various 

 rehearsals, which were very interesting to observe, the young birds departed 

 with a number of old ones which had assisted in teaching their young wings, 

 as well as ideas, "to shoot" through the air. Very few birds return, I 

 think, from their migration. I notice two martins which frequently visit 

 the old nest where the brood I have named was reared, but there is not, 

 at present, any attempt to rebuild it: their acts seem more like a remini- 

 scential inspection. This nest was in an apple loft ; their egress and regress 

 was, last year, through a window then open ; but, observing that, on their 

 arrival this spring, they dashed themselves against the glass, I removed a 

 pane, and now tvTO birds frequently fly in and out ; but only two. — W. B. 

 Clarke^ in a communication dated Stanley Green [Dorsetshire]^ May 19. 1834.] 



