Transactiona. 75' 



the habits of the bird, I have now to add that when I went 

 to live at Mountainhall, eight years ago, not a Starling was 

 to be seen thereabouts ; but now they breed with us, and I 

 see large flocks of them in our fields in autumn. Now, such 

 sudden and sweeping changes of habitat are not governed 

 by the usual laws of inner migration — that is, of migration 

 from one part of the island to another. The gradual changes 

 of tillage, modifying the supplies of food for the bird, cannot 

 account for such violent changes of habitat. I myself have 

 no way of accounting for them. 



The Swallow. — In reference to the Martin or Window 

 Swallow, White of Selborne says : — " Unless these birds are 

 " very short-lived indeed, or unless they don't return to the 

 " district where they have been bred, they must undergo 

 " vast devastations somehow and somewhere ; for the birds 

 " that return yearly bear no manner of proportion to the 

 " birds that retire." The same remarks are applicable to 

 the House or Chimney Swallow. We send about twenty of 

 them away from Mountainhall every autumn, and invariably 

 only two pairs return to us next April. They breed twice, 

 the latter broods being in the end of August or beginning of 

 September. The young birds keep close in the nest till they 

 are large and strong. Last autumn, and the autumn before, 

 I pushed the younglings out of the nest, when I knew they 

 were fully ripe, in order to see how they should take the air. 

 They went high at once, and wheeled about with vigour and 

 ease, leaving me no room to doubt their ability to take the 

 passage to Africa on the 25*'^ of September — which I have 

 set down as the day when our Swallows leave Mountainhall. 

 I am thus led to think that there is no weakness in the later 

 broods to prevent their going with the rest ; and I believe 

 they go accordingly. In all events, I have seen no indication 

 of any lingerer about our place. 



The Chaffinch. — It is my first business, when I step 

 out in the morning, to call on Robin ; and he comes and sits 



