THE COMMON SWIFT. 197 



Natal more or less all the year round, but more 

 plentifully during the summer. 1 The climate of 

 Lower Egypt is apparently too cold for this 

 species in winter, but at that season it is resi- 

 dent and abundant in Upper Egypt. 2 



As winter disappears it gradually moves 

 northward, and a month before it arrives in 

 England it is found in some numbers along the 

 entire coast-line of the Mediterranean. Mr. Os- 

 bert Salvin saw it at Tunis on the 8th March, 

 and subsequently numerous at Algiers. In the 

 middle of March, Mr. Chambers found it plenti- 

 ful at Tripoli, and at the end of the same month 

 it was observed by Mr. Howard Saunders at 

 Gibraltar. In the middle of April, Lord Lilford 

 remarked that it was common in the neighbour 

 hood of Madrid ; about which time, according to 

 Messrs. Elwes and Buckley (" Ibis," 1870, p. 

 200), it usually makes its appearance in Turkey, 

 arriving there doubtless from the Ionian Islands, 3 



1 Ayres, " Ibis," 1863, p. 321. 



2 E. C. Taylor, "Ibis," 1867, p. 56. 



3 Lord Lilford, "Ibis," 1860, p. 234. 



