188



Correspondence.



Extract from “British Birds, ” February, 1913.


A SWALLOW RINGED IN STAFFORDSHIRE AND RECOVERED


IN NATAL.


The following letter has just reached me :—


Grand Hotel,


Utrecht, Natal,


■'Witherby,” 27th December, 1912.


High Holborn, London.


DEAR SIR,


On December 23rd a Swallow was caught in the farmhouse of the farm

“ Roodeyand,” 18 miles from this town, with a metal label round its leg, with

the words : Witherby, High Holborn, London, and on the other side B.830.


The farmer, Mr. J. Mayer, took the label off and has it in his possession.

As I am interested in birds of any sort and the migration of the same, I shall

be glad to know if you receive this letter safely.


Yours truly,


C. H. RUDDOCK, Proprietor.


The ring B.830 was put on an adult Swallow by Mr. J. R. B. Masefield,

at Rosehill, Cheadle, Staffordshire, on May 6th, 1911. This bird was one of a

pair (Mr. Masefield thought the female) which nested in a porch. Its mate was

also caught and ringed. At the same time Mr. Masefield ringed another pair

nesting in the same porch. In the summer of 1912 he again caught the Swallows

which had come to nest in his porch and found that only one of them had a ring,

viz. B.827, which was one of the birds nesting there the year before. Neither

its mate nor the other pair of which the present B.830 is one had returned to

this particular spot.


That this Swallow breeding in the far west of Europe should have reached

so far to the south-east of Africa, seems to me extraordinary. Unfortunately

the few records we have as yet of ringed Swallows recovered during migration do

not afford a clue to the routes taken, and it seems to me unreasonable to suppose

that our birds proceed southwards down the east side of Africa as might be

inferred from this Natal record.


It is, indeed, quite impossible to theorize on a single recovery of this kind

and we must be content at present with the bare fact—perhaps the most startling

fact that the ringing of birds has as yet produced.


We are most thankful to Mr. Ruddock for reporting this extremely

interesting recovery and we hope that the details of it will become widely known

in South Africa and thus produce further results. H. F. WITHERBY.



