214 HIRUNDIN1D.E, 



the year — the harbinger of the best season : he lives a life of 

 enjoyment amongst the loveliest forms of nature : winter is 

 unknown to him ; and he leaves the green meadows of Eng- 

 land in autumn, for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, 

 and for the palms of Africa." This is, in truth, a brief, but 

 a perfect sketch of the history of the Swallow, and I have 

 only to fill up the outline by adding the details. 



The Swallow is a periodical visiter to this country, and 

 more records are preserved of its first appearance every season 

 than of that of any other bird. The average of many records 

 and many seasons, seems to give the 10th of April as the 

 mean period of its arrival ; and it remains more than six 

 months in this country, frequently on its return revisiting the 

 precise locality it had inhabited for seasons before. Swallows 

 are occasionally seen earlier than the date here mentioned, 

 even in a backward spring, the migration being influenced by 

 the temperature of the country they proceed from. In a 

 letter written by Charles Lucian Bonaparte, Prince of Musig- 

 nano, and dated on board the Delaware, near Gibraltar, 

 March 20th, 1828, it is stated that a few days before, being 

 five hundred miles from the coasts of Portugal, and four 

 hundred from those of Africa, we were agreeably surprised by 

 the appearance of a few Swallows, Hirundo rustica and 

 urhica. The wind had blown a gale from the eastward. In 

 that year the first Swallow seen at Carlisle, as recorded by 

 Mr. Heysham, was on the 18th of April: the first seen in 

 Cornwall, as recorded by Mr. Couch, was on the 17th. 

 These birds, in crossing the Channel, Mr. Couch observes, 

 reach the land near the shore, and in misty weather seem to 

 have a difficulty in finding it ; for I have been assured by 

 intelligent fishermen, that, when the weather is hazy, Swal- 

 lows, Martins, Swifts, and other birds, are accustomed to 

 alight on their boats at the distance of three or four leagues 

 from land, either singly or in small flocks ; at which time they 



