124 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



I used to think at one time that Swallows were 

 destructive in the neighbourhood of bee-hives, having 

 frequently seen a Swallow take a bee on the wing. 

 But a writer in ' The Field Naturalist's Magazine,' 

 who formerly shared the same opinion, says that he 

 shot several Swallows after they had passed and 

 repassed his hives several times, and upon opening 

 them was surprised to find that, although the 

 stomachs were literallv crammed with drones, there 

 •was not a vestige of a icorking bee. By what curious 

 instinct is the bird thus led to make a distinction so 

 much in our favour ? 



Yai'ieties of the Swallow occasionally are met 

 with. I have seen a pure white specimen which 

 was shot some vears as;o at The Hvde. 



I have several times seen a bird which I take to 

 be the Barn Swallow of America {H. rufa), and 

 which, I believe, is not uncommon in England. It 

 difters chiefly from H. riistica in having the under 

 parts, from chin to vent, light chestnut instead of 

 white. Mr. AV. H. Power savs that he has more 

 than once shot Swallows with the under paii; of a 

 light chestnut, but as these were sfenerallv obtained 

 in the spring he took them to be merely fine- 

 coloured males of H. rustica. 



Maetix, Hirundo urhica. A common summer 

 visitant, arriving, like the Swallow, in April, but 

 generally later than that bird, and leaving in 

 October. The rapidity with which these birds build 



