98 BRITISH BIRDS. 



hence it has been recorded as occurring in various parts of Europe, and even, 

 by Mr. Gurney, in Great Britain ; but I have as yet failed in finding any 

 example of Hirundo Savignii from a locality north of the Mediterranean." 



Amid the diversity of "opinion among those whose dicta are of the best, 

 I shall not pretend to decide, and will only say that the variation in colour 

 between the two species, as seen in the Plate, exactly corresponds to that 

 between the two Owls now hanging against my wall, viz. the Barn- Owl and 

 the Danish Barn-Owl, the latter figured in this work. These two Owls are 

 declared to be the same species, and the two Swallows to be different— 

 which appears somewhat paradoxical. The Swallow which arrives at 

 Brighton in April certainly has its underparts strongly tinged with rufous. 



CYPSELUS MURARIUS. 



(Swift.) 



I HAVE always heard Swifts called Devellings by the country people. In 

 August, on the Downs and beach near Shoreham harbour, many are observed 

 on their departure. 



Every now and then there comes a season most fatal to Swifts and 

 Swallows. Mr. Henry Stevenson, in his ' Birds of Norfolk,' vol. i. p. 345, 

 mentions that " on the mornings of the 5th and 6th June, 1816, the gardeners 

 could have picked up hundreds of these birds ( Swallows) in their hands. 

 They were collected in knots, and sat on the grass in parcels of thirty and 

 forty. This, there is reason to believe, was owing both to cold and hunger." 

 " May 20, 1859, a pair of Swifts were taken in a semitorpid state from under 

 the eaves of a church." " May 29, 1869, I observed a great mortality in 

 Swifts ; there was snow in Yorkshire May 28, and several clipped sheep were 

 starved to death." In June 1855 hundreds of Hirundo rustica w^ere found dead 



