Oil the wanton Destruction of Swallo^dos, 35 



middle of September, when they have left our district, you 

 will find many of them congregated in large reedlings near the 

 coast. 



The blackcap and greater petty chaps (S. Atricapilla and 

 S. hortensis) leave from the end of August to the 8th or 10th of 

 September ; a few blackcaps remain until the end of the month. 

 I have heard the blackcap singing in low inward notes about 

 the middle of September. The whin-chat (S. Rubetra) has 

 been said to winter with us, only shifting its situation. I have 

 never seen this bird in autumn after the beginning of October, 

 and the greater number have retired much before that time ; 

 nor earlier in spring than the middle of April, in the forwardest 

 seasons. The wheatear (S. 6Enanthe) I have seen later in 

 autumn, and much earlier in spring, than S. Rubetra. And 

 lastly, that diminutive fairy little bird, the golden-crested 

 wren, although indigenous with us, changes its situation oc- 

 casionally ; and in autumn, in some seasons, I believe, many 

 arrive on our coast from the north ; they are often caught on 

 board vessels many miles from land, flying to the lights. In 

 small copses and fir plantations near the coast, where, perhaps, 

 the day before scarcely a bird was to be seen, you will some- 

 times meet with this bird in great numbers ; which, with the fact 

 of their often being caught at sea, argues strongly in favour 

 of a partial emigration. I am, Sir, &c. 



J. D. Hoy. 

 Stoke Nayland, Nov, 27. 



Art. IX. On the wanton Destruction of Swallows, 

 By Philochelidon. 

 Sir, 

 One of your correspondents (Vol. I. p. 288.) suggests the 

 idea of the legislature interfering to prevent bird-catchers 

 from exercising their art within twenty miles of the metropolis. 

 I am not going to discuss the merits or the practicability of 

 such a measure, but I do wish that a penalty, and no very 

 light one, were enacted against a much worse practice, viz. 

 the wanton destruction of those harmless* and useful creatures, 

 the swallows. Hear, upon this subject, the sentiments of a 

 modern writer*, whose kind feelings do credit to him as a 

 man. " The sportsman's essaying his skill on the swallow 

 race, that * skim the dimpled pool,' or harmless glide along 

 the flowery mead, when, if successful, he consigns whole 

 nests of infant broods to famine and to death, is pitiable 



* See Journal of a Naturalist, p. 226., first edition. 

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