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THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 



Chelidon urbica (L.). 



The House-Miirtin arrived along the whole of the south coast, 

 but more particularly on the western half. 



The first migrants were seen in Devonshire on the 23rd of 

 March and in Essex on the 27th. Between the 1st and 20th 

 of April there seems to have been an irregular immigration 

 at intervals on the western half of the south coast, the arrivals 

 during the last six days of that' period being on a rather 

 larger scale. By the time the last of these birds had arrived, 

 House-Martins were scattered thinly, but widely, over the 

 whole kingdom, at least as far north as Argyllshire, but far 

 more sparingly in the east and south-east than elsewhere. 



The main immigratory movement of this species began on 

 the 21st of April with the arrival of larger numbers on the 

 whole of the south coast. This movement continued, with 

 but two intermissions of a day each, until the 11th of 

 May, the arrivals being more continuous and the numbers 

 greater in the western counties. 



The bulk of the earlier arrivals travelled north through 

 the western Midlands and quickly passed on to the northern 

 counties, the Isle of Man and Scotland, but Yorkshire was 

 not reached until a day or two later than Cumberland and 

 Westmoreland, and large numbers were not recorded in East 

 Anglia until two or three days later. 



By the 1st of May a considerable number of our breeding- 

 birds had arrived and the records of migrants then began to 

 decrease in number ; but it was clear that passage-movements 

 through the country continued with but little decrease in 

 volume until ten days later. The advent of further immigrants 



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