172 OUR SUMMER MIGRANTS. 



Humphrey Davy saw a single Swallow capture 

 four Mayflies that were descending to the water, 

 in less than a quarter of a minute. Mr. 

 Thompson says 1 that a correspondent of his, 

 Mr. Poole, has found the mouths of young 

 birds filled with Tipulce, and that Mr. Sinclair, 

 an accurate ornithologist, remarked a number of 

 Swallows flying for some time about two pollard 

 willows, and on going to the place ascertained 

 that the object of pursuit was hive bees, which, 

 being especially abundant beneath the branches, 

 he saw captured by the birds as they flew 

 within a few yards of his head. The assertion 

 that Swallows take honey bees was long ago 

 made by Virgil, and, though not often noticed 

 by writers on British Birds, the fact has several 

 times been corroborated. A writer in the 

 " Field Naturalist's Magazine" for 1834 (p. 125), 

 stated that, having observed some Swallows 

 seize bees in passing his hives, he shot them, 

 and on opening them carefully, found that, 



1 "Nat. Hist. Ireland" (Birds), i. p. 377. 



