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and C. riparia being in almost equal numbers. This occurred all 

 the way up the river side, so that the destruction must have been 

 immense. Many of the colonies of the Sandmartin have been 

 entirely cleared out, not a single bird being left. From both the 

 west coast and east fells, correspondents report that they have not 

 seen a single bird of the swallow kind since the 12th. I dissected 

 several of the birds which I brought home, and some others which 

 were sent to me, and found in every case the gullet and stomach 

 devoid of food ; the cause of death being want of food, accelerated 

 by the intense cold of the 1 2th. 



What effect this destruction of Swallows will have upon insect- 

 life this summer, will be well worth studying ; and it may be some 

 years before we have them back again in the same numbers. The 

 summer of 1886 may well be known as "the Swallowless summer." 

 In a journey of thirty miles on the 20th, I did not see a single 

 bird of the Hirimdinidcz ; and the blank to one who has been 

 accustomed to watch them with much interest, is something 

 indescribable. 



W. Duckworth. 



LUMP FISH IN THE SOLWAY. 



On March 20th, 1886, I received a Lump Fish from Skinburness; 

 it had been taken in the stream nets set to catch flounders. The 

 fisherman who sent it had only seen three or four during a long 

 experience. On April 3rd I received another from the same place, 

 which was the largest I have seen, weighing five-and-a-half pounds. 

 It was a male, and full of melt. On Good Friday, April 23rd, a 

 friend met an angler on Burgh Marsh who had caught one while 

 fishing with the worm. He said there was quite a shoal of them, 

 that his line had been broken by a second, and all his tackle lost. 

 On the Scotch side of the Solway they are known, I believe, by 

 the name of the "Old Hen," 



W. Duckworth. 



