PASSE RES. ( 135 ) HIRUNDINID^. 



THE SWALLOW. 



CHIMNEY SWALLOW, COMMON SWALLOW, RED-FRONTED 

 SWALLOW, BARN SWALLOW. 



Hirundo rustica. 



The Swallow knows her time. 

 And on. the vernal breezes wings her way 

 O'er mountain, plaiti, and far-extending seas. 

 From Africs torrid sands to Britain^ s shore. 



Grahame, Bh-ds of Scotland. 



Of all our migratory birds the Swallow ]s one of the greatest 

 favourites, for it nestles under our roofs, and on its return in 

 spring is ever welcome as the harbinger of summer. After 

 its winter sojourn amongst the palm-trees of Africa ^ or 

 Palestine, this clime-changing bird, hearing the voice of 

 spring, remembers that the time for revisiting its home in 

 the north has arrived ; and, setting forth on its aerial journey, 

 flies swiftly along the coasts of Northern Africa,'^ and over 

 sunny Spain and France ; or, crossing the Mediterranean to 



1 Mr. Hardy writes that an old Berwickshire story about Swallows is told in 

 the following form:— "A man, to ascertain where they went to in winter, 

 caught one, and placed round its neck a piece of parchment inscribed ' Kim- 

 merghame Mill.' It returned in the following spring with the reply, 'River 

 Nile, Egypt.'" 



2 The Swallows disappear suddenly, they are followed across the Channel, 

 watched at Gibraltar, reported coasting along the shores of North Africa, and 

 then duly cabled as catching flies and twittering at Cairo or Jerusalem.— T^e 

 Migration of Birds, in Edinburgh Review, Jan. 1885. [The return journey in 

 spring will be along the same route."! 



