373 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



SWALLOWS AND SWIFTS IN CAPTIVITY. 



[The accouut given by Mr. A. G. Butler (p. 347) of his attempt to keep 

 Sand Martins in confinement has recalled to mind the experience in this 

 direction of Mr. W. E. Teschemaker, as related by him in ' The Bazaar, 

 Exchange, and Mart' of the 13th April last. Experiments of the kind 

 have been so seldom made, or, if made, the results have been so seldom 

 reported, that we believe many of our readers will be glad to see 

 Mr. Teschemaker 's remarks reproduced here.] 



Knowing from pi-actical experience how hard it is to preserve 

 in health for any length of time the majority of our British 

 Warblers, it was only recently that it occurred to me that it 

 might be possible to domesticate our Hirundines also, and it was 

 not until the end of last summer (1886) that I put the matter to 

 a practical test. 



The Swallow and its congeners always seem so fragile, so 

 ethereal — such devotees of the sunny south — that the last thing 

 in the world that one thinks of in connection with them is a 

 cage, or any other such conventional domicile. Nevertheless 

 I am pretty well convinced now that not only are they readily 

 domesticated, but also that they make most charming and 

 interesting pets. 



The first thing I did, when my attention was directed to this 

 subject, was to glance at such books of reference as I had by me. 

 No volume, however, to which I had access mentioned any case 

 of the Hirundines being domesticated ; nor am I aware of any 

 work on aviary birds that does so, though of course it is quite 

 possible that some that I have not been able to consult may 

 contain the required information. The best of all such works, 

 Bechstein's ' Cage Birds,' does not include the Hirundines, nor 

 does the last edition of his work, which contains also the addenda 

 of Sweet's " Warblers," and is most complete. 



Last of all, I hunted out an old edition of Bewick (the 

 pioneer of many a modern book), and there I found what I 

 wanted — a detailed account of a successful attempt to reclaim 

 the Swallow. First and foremost, then, I will give the substance 

 of Bewick's narrative. This experiment was made by Mr. James 

 Pearson, of 21, Great Newport Street, Long Acre, London, and 

 was communicated to Bewick by Sir John Trevelyan, Bart. 



