108 SWALLOW BEE-BIRD. 



from south to north, according to the season. And these vast 

 migrations consist not only of hirimdines, but of bee-birds,* 



assurance of these migrations in his travels in Egypt. He says, he had 

 the proof, in the immense bodies of these birds which he perceived pushing 

 their way in the direction of Egypt from Europe, during the month of 

 November, when the winter sets in. 



We are told by Wilson, that the swallows of America are also migra- 

 tory, " arriving in Pennsylvania late in April, or early in May; dispersing 

 themselves over the whole country, wherever there are vacant chimneys, 

 in summer, sufficiently high and convenient for their accommodation. 

 In no other situation," with us, are they observed at present to build. 

 This circumstance naturally suggests the query, Where did these birds 

 construct their nests before the arrival of Europeans in this country, wheu 

 there were no such places for their accommodation? I would answer, 

 Probably in the same situations in which they still continue to build in 

 the remote regions of our western forests ; where European improvements 

 of this kind are scarcely to be found, namely, in the hollow of a tree, 

 which, in some cases, has the nearest resemblance to their present choice, 

 of any other. One of the first settlers in the state of Kentucky informed 

 me, that he cut down a large hollow beech tree, which contained forty or 

 fifty nests of the chimney swallow, most of which, by the fall of the tree, 

 or by the weather, were lyi'ug at the bottom of the hollow ; but sufficient 

 fragments remained, adhering to the sides of the tree, to enable him to 

 number them. They appeared, he said, to be of many years' standing." 



Dr Richardson says, " In the fur countries, where the habitations of 

 man are few and far between, the barn-swallow inhabits caves, parti- 

 cularly in the limestone rocks ; and it frequents the out-houses of all 

 the trading ports. When Fort Franklin was erected on the shores of the 

 Great Bear Lake, in the autumn of 1 825, we found many of the nests in 

 the ruins of a house that had been abandoned for more than ten years." 

 In that northern latitude they arrive about the 15th of May, and take 

 their departure early in August. Swallows were noticed by Dr Richard- 

 son at Fort Good Hope in latitude sixty-seven and a half degrees, the most 

 northerly post in America. ED. 



* What our author calls bee-bird, is the European bee-eater, merops 

 apiaster of Linmeus. It is the only one of the genus found in Europe. 

 It is not uncommon in the south of France, Italy, Germany, and Sweden, 

 but abounds in the southern Russian provinces bordering on the Don and 

 Wolga. It is gregarious and migratory, leaving its summer quarters 

 for more southern latitudes in autumn. This bird has been frequently 

 taken in Britain, but was not noticed till July, 1794, when one was shot 

 at Mattishall, county of Norfolk. In the same year, a flock of about 

 twenty was seen in June, and, in October following, a flight, much 

 fewer in number in all probability the same passed over the place 

 where they had been first seen. This bird feeds on all winged insects, 

 which it takes on the wing like a swallow En. 



Sir William Jardine, in a paper on " the Birds of Madeira," in the 

 Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geographical Science^ mentions 

 that the common swift remains in that island all the year round. Not- 

 withstanding the very respectable authority of Mr Carruthers, on whose 

 observations he states this, we are inclined to suppose his conclusions 



