88 THE BIRDS OF BERKS AND BUCKS. 



times. The Cuckoo generally leaves us in the early 

 part of September, though I once saw three in Ditton 

 Park as late as the 2Oth of November. For informa- 

 tion on certain peculiarities in the life-history of this 

 remarkable bird, I must refer my readers to a capital 

 paper by the Rev. A. C. Smith, in the Zoologist* 



Tribe FlSSlROSTRES. Family HIRUNDINID^:. 



SWALLOW (Hirundo rustled). Perhaps no bird is 

 more anxiously looked for in spring by dwellers in 

 the country than that harbinger of summer, the 

 Swallow. 



It arrives in this country about the I2th of April, but 

 in some seasons a few stragglers may be observed 

 earlier. In 1867, upon the 1st of April, a pair of 

 these birds were seen hawking about that part of 

 the Thames which flows through the Eton College 

 playing-fields ; and some have arrived in the neigh- 

 bourhood before the end of March. The following 

 is an extract from a letter from my cousin Mr. John 

 Kennedy, dated 2 ist August, 1 867, written at Rosetta, 

 near Launceston, Tasmania: 'We are now in the 

 beginning of spring, and as a sign thereof the Swal- 

 lows are again appearing: they have been seen in 

 town three or four days. I had the pleasure of see- 

 ing my first Swallow in Tasmania yesterday (August 



* Vide Zoologist^ 1868, pp. 1105-1118. 



