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THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 



Chelidon urhica (L.). 



The House-Martin arrived along the whole of the south coast, 

 but chiefly from Hampshire westwards ; with the exception 

 o£ a doubtful small immigration on the Sussex coast on the 

 20th of April, no House-Martins appear to have landed to 

 the eastward of Hampshire until May. The earliest birds 

 to reach the eastern counties seem to have spread from 

 the west, for considerable numbers had reached Cheshire 

 and Shropshire, and arrivals had been reported in a good 

 many Welsh counties, and as far north as Cumberland and 

 Renfrew, before the first birds reached East Anglia. 



The first large arrival took place from Dorsetshire west- 

 wards on the 17th of April, and between the 21st and 27th 

 fresh immigrants were arriving daily in one or more districts 

 to the west of the Isle of Wight. The northward passage 

 of the more western arrivals could be traced through 

 Wales and the western Midlands to [Cumberland and the 

 Isle of Man, while the more eastern ones seem to have 

 spread through Berkshire and Surrey into the eastern Mid- 

 lands, East Anglia, Lincoln, Yorkshire and Durham. 



A third immigration began on the 1st of May and lasted 

 until the 6th, and, with the exception of an arrival in Kent 

 on the 1st, the birds again landed between Hampshire and 

 Devonshire. The influence of this immigration seems to have 

 been more marked on the eastern half of the kingdom than 

 that of the previous ones. A fourth immigration occurred 

 between the 7th and 12th, the area of arrival being 

 between Devonshire and Kent, while the last immigrants 

 arrived in Hampshire and Kent between the 15th and 



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