STRAND SWALLOW. 231 



SURF-SCOTER [No. 311]. The name occurs in Fleming (1828), 

 who recorded it from the Orkneys and Shetlands. Surf- 

 duck, a Scottish name for the COMMON SCOTER (from 

 its habit of diving for food among the breakers) is perhaps 

 the origin of this species' name. 



SWABIE: The GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. (Orkney 

 and Shetland.) Swainson spells it " Swarbie." 



SWALLOW [No. 195]. From A.Sax. Swalewe. The name occurs 

 in Turner (1544) as " Swallowe " and in Barlow's plates 

 (1655) as "Swallow." Merrett and Willughby call it 

 the " House-Swallow." This is one of the birds held in 

 veneration in many parts of England, it being usualty 

 considered unlucky to kill one, this belief prevailing in 

 Sussex, Hampshire, Yorkshire and other counties, as well as 

 in parts of Scotland, but in some parts of England and 

 more certainly in Ireland we do not find the belief prevailing, 

 in fact the bird is locally called " devil's bird," the belief 

 being that " on everyone's head there is a particular hair 

 which if the Swallow can pluck off dooms the wretched 

 individual to eternal perdition " (Dyer). In connexion 

 with its veneration the Magyar belief may be mentioned 

 that if one is killed the cows' milk will turn to blood, a 

 precisely similar belief prevailing in this country regarding 

 the Robin (q.v.). A Cornish custom is to jump on seeing 

 the first Swallow in spring. In some parts of England, 

 April 15th is called " Swallow day," because Swallows are 

 thought to appear at that date. The old saying " One 

 Swallow does not make a Summer " was originally a Greek 

 proverb but is found in most European languages. The 

 proverb appears to originate with Aristotle, who says, 

 " One Swallow does not make a Summer, nor one fine day." 

 Willughby, however, uses the expression " One Swallow 

 makes not a Spring," and says the origin appears to lie in 

 the bird being universally regarded as the herald of spring. 

 Swallow-songs to welcome the coming of March and the 

 Swallows still prevail among the children in Greece, where 

 they are of great antiquity. To Aristotle may also be 

 traced the belief, which was formerly very generally held, 

 that Swallows hibernated in hollow places in winter. A 

 Cornish belief of comparatively modern times was that they 

 spent the winter in disused tin mines and holes in the cliffs, 

 etc. Gilbert White of Selborne was a strong believer in the 

 hibernation of the Swallow tribe, and Col. Montagu a partial 

 believer. In the Introduction to his celebrated "Ornith- 

 ological Dictionary " (p. xxvii) he says that " torpidity 



