THE HOUSE-MARTIN. 389 



of June, the young were all but fledged at Patras. At this date, 

 they are in favourable seasons equally far advanced in the north 

 of Ireland. — The only localities from which, in the midst of sum- 

 mer, I ever remarked all the Hirundinidce to be absent, were the 

 south islands of Arran, off Galway bay. Not an individual of 

 any of the species was seen here by Mr. R. Ball or myself, when 

 visiting the islands on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of July, 1834, the 

 weather being all the time very fine. Returning from them, we 

 had no sooner reached the coast of Clare, — the nearest land, — 

 than many of the H. rustica were observed. 



In the later editions of Bewick's British Birds, a highly inter- 

 esting account of the fa mili arity of the swallow in confinement, 

 appears in a letter from the Rev. Walter Trevelyan. 



THE HOUSE -MARTIN. 



Hirundo urbica, Linn. 



Is a regular summer visitant. 



Being much more choice in the selection of haunts than the 

 swallow, it is by no means so generally distributed over the island; 

 and in some of the less improved districts, may even be called a 

 local species. In Scotland, according to Mr. Macgillivray, the 

 house martin " is more widely dispersed " than the swallow. — Brit. 

 Birds, vol. iii. p. 575. 



In the north of Ireland according to my observation, the house- 

 martin is invariably later in its arrival than either the sand-martin 

 or the swallow. It generally appears about the middle of April.* 



The " trim and neat " style of the generality of houses, erected 



* Mr. Blackwall states, that the average time of the martin's appearance at Man- 

 chester, is the 25th of April, and that of the swallow, the 15th of the same month. 

 It is observed by Mr. Hepburn, that " the house-martin arrives at the village of Lin- 

 ton on the Tyne, in the last week of April, though in 1839, a few were seen by the 

 17th of that month." — Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iii. p. 580. In the same 

 work, p. 592, it is mentioned, on the authority of David Falconer, Esq., " that for 

 the very long period of forty successive years, a pair of them had come to Carlowrie, 

 either upon the 22nd or 23rd of April." 



