SWALLOW. 219 



can no longer afford them. They generally leave by the end 

 of October, but stragglers are sometimes seen as late as the 

 middle of November. 



In confinement these birds become exceedingly tame, and 

 in this state it has been ascertained by naturalists in this, as 

 well as in other countries, that these birds moult in January 

 and February. An account of the mode pursued will be 

 found in Bewick'^s History of British Birds ; and the Rev. 

 W. F. Cornish, of Totness, who is known to be very skilful 

 in his management of birds in confinement, sent me word, 

 that of two Swallows given him, one lived a year and a half, 

 and the other two years. It has been observed by the Rev. 

 Walter Trevelyan that these birds, like other feeders on 

 insects, reproduce the indigestible parts of their food in small 

 pellets, called castings. 



The Swallow is common in summer throughout all the 

 British Isles, and visits Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. 

 M. Nilsson says it arrives in Sweden early in May, and re- 

 tires in September. It does not go so far north as our Mar- 

 tin, but it remains a little later, as I am informed by Richard 

 Dann, Esq. who has passed several seasons in Norway and 

 Lapland, and who tells me also that there is no want of food 

 for them, as the morasses in the sheltered valleys swarm with 

 insects. 



Pennant says the Swallow visits the southern parts of Si- 

 beria : and a Russian naturalist has included it amonsr the 

 summer birds of the countries between the Black and the 

 Caspian seas ; it is also found at Erzcrum from April till 

 September. Swallows leaving Italy, which they all do in 

 autumn, go off in the direction for Egypt, and have been seen 

 in Egypt going still farther south. Bruce saw the Swallow 

 in Abyssinia in winter. Those from the western parts of 

 Europe go to Western Africa. Sir William Jardinc in- 

 cludes it among the birds of Madeira. Adanson in 1783, 



