346 ITTRUNDINID^E. 



Swallows, as Canon Tristram reports, winter in the oases on 

 the northern verge of the Great Desert, but by far the larger 

 number unquestionably go much further, though whether 

 the birds (undoubtedly of our own species) which occur so 

 abundantly between November and February at the Cape of 

 Good Hope and elsewhere in South Africa, are individuals of 

 British birth is as yet unknown. It is however certain 

 that they do not breed either there or along the West Coast 

 of Africa, where they are also very abundant during the 

 time they are absent from us, and it is also certain that 

 at this season they moult,* so that when they return to 

 their northern home they are in the fullest perfection of 

 plumage. t Their passage seems generally to be effected as 

 much as possible overland, but observations are not wanting 

 to shew that at times their ordinary course is deflected sea- 

 wards,]: and when this is the case, they no doubt suffer 

 extremely, arriving at their destination (if they do reach it) 

 in a very exhausted state, due possibly as much to hunger as 

 to fatigue. They have been not unfrequently seen to alight 

 on the water, and presently to fly off again, while there are 

 many notices of their settling in crowds on ships. 



The Swallow is common in summer throughout nearly all 

 the British Islands, but it does not seem to breed on the 

 Outer Hebrides, though it occurs there every year, as it 

 does also in Shetland (where however its nest has several 

 times been known), the Faeroes, and Iceland. It has been 

 once observed in Spitsbergen (Ibis, 1875, p. 272), and Mr. 

 Gillet saw a pair in Nova Zembla (op. cit. 1870, p. 306). 

 Herr Nordvi is said to have found it breeding in East Fin- 

 mark ; but it can hardly be deemed much more than an 

 occasional straggler in Scandinavia beyond lat. 68 30' N., 

 though below this line it is common enough in Lapland. 

 It is widely distributed throughout Russia from Archangel 



* This fact seems first to have been ascertained from birds in captivity by Mr. 

 James Pearson, and communicated by Sir John Trevelyan to Bewick who pub- 

 lished it in 1826. 



t Some very important points on this matter were clearly put forth by Messrs. 

 Sharpe and Dresser (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, pp. 244-249). 



+ They only occur accidentally in the Atlantic Islands. 



