PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



of latitude and season we have tho immigration into the British lales in the first 

 half of May. A swift was myflltedt on the best authority, from Lowestoft on 

 26th March 1897, an utterly exceptional date. A few swifts appear in the 

 south of England and of Ireland before April is out in most seasons, but the 

 main influx occurs about the second week of May as a rule. In the more 

 northerly parts, including the whole of Scotland, swifts are seldom seen at all 

 till May (cf. Saunders, III. Man. B. B., 2nd ed., 1890, p. 261 ; Ussher and Warren, 

 B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 103 ; and Serle, Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1909, p. 183). As 

 in the case of many of our other summer visitors, the swifts very markedly 

 arrive "first and chiefly on the western hah"' of the south coast of England, 

 often spreading thence into the eastern districts before direct immigration occurs on 

 the coastline of these (cf. B. 0. C. Migration Reports, i.-v., but especially ii. pp. 

 145-151 ; and Ticehuret, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 225). Towards the end of May 

 1886 two swifts were found dead from cold at New Ross, Co. Wexford, and one of 



tlli'-r ll.ll .1 ]>lr,-,- nf |i,i|iT tied llli'lcr It- I, ill. IxMTIML' thr I IIMTI |>t K ill. " M.U V Kl-.llll. 



Suakim, Egypt, 10-3-86 " (of. Field, 29th May 1886). Southward movement is to 

 be noticed on the east coast of Great Britain as early as the end of June, and becomes 

 general after mid-July. Scotland is deserted by most of it* swifts by the first 

 week of August, and a similar state of affairs is true for the whole British area by 

 the end of the month. The movement continues faintly till mid-September in the 

 south of England, and only stragglers are to be seen thereafter, although they have 

 been recorded as late as 1st December (Cf. Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 262 ; B. 0. C. 

 Migration Reports, iii.-v. ; Ticehuret, loc. cit. ; Saunders, lor. cil. ; and Ussher and 

 Warren, loc. tit.). There is no proof of passage to and from more northern lands 

 by way of the British Isles, although a record from Shetland, 4th October 1900* 

 among others, might be considered as suggestive of this (cf. Baxter and Rintoul, 

 Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1910, p. 203). The swift is a markedly gregarious migrant, 

 and solitary early and late individuals are comparatively infrequently met with. 

 On passage they travel in parties of from five to twenty, or in flocks of twenty to 

 two hundred during a " rush " or strong movement (cf. Nelson, loc. tit.). The birds 

 of a colony frequently arrive en masse, not heralded by forerunners, as so often 

 occurs with swallows and others ; but neighbouring colonies may receive their 

 respective inhabitants at quite different dates. A case has been recorded of two 

 Devonshire colonies three miles apart, at one of which the swifts one year arrived 

 exactly a week before any appeared at the other (cf. Elliot, Trans. Devon A. A. 

 Science, etc., 1907, p. 79) ; and the present writer has noted a similar interval, in 



