SWALLOW 143 



Family HIRUNDINID^. 



Genus HIRUNDO, Linngeus. 

 SWALLOW. 



Hirundo mstica, LiniicTeus. S.N., i., p. 343 

 (1766). 



House-Swallow, Chimney- Swallow. Swallow, Boys, 



1792. 



Few birds that are summer visitors to this county, 

 besides the Nightingale, have drawn upon themselves 

 more attention than the w^ell-known and beautiful 

 Swallow. No spring or summer would be complete with- 

 out them. This homely bird, with its delightful skim- 

 ming flight around the home of man, is a pleasure to all, 

 and the vast benefit derived by its presence to agricul- 

 turists, by the consumption of insects, is very great. 



Among the following details of the arrivals and de- 

 partures of the Swallow, which are given in a more 

 or less chronological order, and with the time of nest- 

 ing, will be found, perhaps, some useful material for 

 future observation. The Rev. J. Pemberton Bartlett 

 wrote to the Zoologist, 1844, as follows: "From the 

 remarks of two of your correspondents, the Rev. J. C. 

 Atkinson (Zoologist, 354) and Mr. Hepburn {Zoologist, 

 147), on the places chosen for nidification by the Hirundo 

 rustica, it appears that in the localities they mention 

 these * welcome guests of settled spring ' but rarely 

 build in chimneys. Now in Kent it is quite the reverse 

 — building in chimneys with them here is the rule, 

 and outhouses and barns the exception. Where we have 



