119 



THE SWALLOW. 

 Hirundo rustica L. 



Fkom the beginning of April until the middle of May the 

 Swallow arrived continually in this country. Being a 

 conspicuous bird and one easily seen and identified, the 

 records were very numerous, so that its method of arrival and 

 dispersion could be traced with comparative ease. During 

 April seven distinct immigrations were observed, their 

 general trend being due north, and in almost every case the 

 western wing reached the Devon or Dorset coasts one or two 

 days before the eastern wing reached Hampshire or Sussex. 

 After the end of April the arrivals consisted of smaller 

 bodies, which landed on the coast in various localities and 

 could easily be traced as they followed in the track of their 

 predecessors. 



The jirst immigration of the Swallow consisted of a small 

 number of birds which arrived on the coasts of Devon and 

 Dorset on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of April. The first arrivals 

 spread quickly, and reached Wiltshire on the 3rd and 4rth, 

 Somerset, Glamorgan, and Berkshire on the 4th, Derby on 

 the 5th, Denbigh on the 6th, and Yorkshire and Lancashire 

 on the 7th. 



The later arrivals passed through Somer'jet on the 5th, 

 Staffordshire, Derby, and Denbigh on the 8th, Shropshire 

 on the 9th, Leicester on the 10th, Cheshire on the 12th, 

 reached Yorkshire and- Dumfriesshire on the 13th and 

 Durham on the 14th. Another smaller contingent seems to 

 have taken a more easterly route, to have passed through 

 Hampshire into Berkshire and Kent on the 8th and to have 

 penetrated as far as Suffolk on the 9th, Norfolk on the 11th, 

 and Cambridge on the 12th. 



A second immigration took place on April the 8th on the 

 south coast of Cornwall, Some of these birds seem to have 



