818 The Zoologist— July, 1867. 



ponds in Blackheath Park. The railway-banks, where they breed, 

 have brought them. Watched for a long time a pair of splendid old 

 swallows, in fine condition, with shining blue-black backs, and rich 

 chestnut throats, hawking under the lee of a hedge ; they frequently 

 came within a yard of my face. 



May 14. Cold N.E. wind. Swallows fluttering in the grass and 

 taking insects off the buttercups. Sand martins innumerable about 

 all the ponds. I have in vain sought for the garden warbler. It was 

 gratifying to see so many swallows again in Eltham, the oldest village 

 in the neighbourhood, where I generally first met with them, and where 

 last year I went continually and could see none of the tribe. I could 

 not account for it, for they were located all round Eltham. I thought 

 possibly pots having been placed upon the old massive brick chimneys 

 might have sent them away. At last T remarked the drains in Eltham 

 were all open, and being connected with those two rivers of death 

 flowing on each side of the Thames, carrying off the water and 

 leaving the condensed foul air to poison us. I had been reading and 

 re-reading that wonderful production of the human mind, Macbeth, 

 and was forcibly struck with the truth of these lines : — 



" This casile hath a pleasant seat; the air 

 Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 

 Unto our gemle senses. 

 * * * This guest of summer, 

 The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 

 By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's Itreath 

 Smells wooingly here: no jutly, frieze, 

 Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 

 Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle: 

 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 

 The air is delicate." 



That the air of Eltham is good, the tomb of Elizabeth Armstrong, 

 who breathed it at one hundred and eleven years of age, testifies. I 

 concluded it must have been the bad air of the drains that, in 1866, 

 had driven the swallows and martins out of Eltham. 



Chiffchaff 

 Nightingale - 

 Swallow 

 Willow Wren 

 Sand Martin - 

 Tree Pipit 



