412 HIRUNDINIDCE. 



In the fifth volume of the Mag. Nat. Hist., p. 736, Mr. Couch 

 remarks : " It is not long that swifts have frequented stations con- 

 venient for my observation. At first they were about two pairs, 

 but they have now increased to four or five ; and it is singular, 

 that according to my observation, there is always an odd bird." 

 A similar circumstance was, for the first time, remarked by me in the 

 summer of 1829, when three swifts resorted to Wolf -hill,* and 

 took up their abode between the slates and window-frame of a 

 loft not more than twenty feet in height. Here, where a shot 

 was not permitted to be fired, and the odd bird could not have 

 lost its parent by the fowling-piece, the circumstance was consi- 

 dered as " passing strange." During three months, the usual 

 period of the swiff s presence in this country, the three mature 

 individuals only appeared. The following year, also, an odd 

 number of these birds was observed at Wolf-hill, there being 

 either five or seven. During those two summers, the houses 

 there had, with respect to fallen plaster and the growth of lichens, 

 mosses, &c, rather more of a picturesque appearance than is con- 



Odiliam." At the end of June, 1835, I observed numbers of these birds about the 

 high limestone cliffs which rise in picturesque beauty above the river Derwent, at 

 Matlock in Derbyshire, where it was presumed they had nests. 



* This locality, situated about three miles from Belfast, and elevated 500 feet 

 above the sea, was a favourite haunt of the Hirundinidce. During the sojourn of the 

 swift, this species, with the three others, might frequently have been seen at one view, 

 the swallow, martin, and sand-martin, sweeping in company over the ponds, while 

 the swift, though generally maintaining a superior altitude, occasionally broke through 

 their ranks ; the whole of the species, on such occasions, and indeed at all times, ex- 

 hibiting the most perfect amity. The swift built under the eaves of an outhouse, the 

 rafters of which displayed the nest of the swallow beneath them ; under an adjoining 

 roof, the " cradle " of the martin appeared, and not more than a furlong distant was 

 the burrow of the sand-martin. It was extremely interesting to the lover of nature 

 thus to behold at a glance all the species of these attractive summer wanderers that 

 regularly visit the British Islands ; and where they do thus appear, there are gene- 

 rally some charming features of natural scenery. 



I observed the four species when (accompanied by Mr. Selby and the Rev. Edw. 

 Bigge), in July, 1839, at Kilrea, where the banks of the river Bann are picturesquely 

 wooded, and the expansive stream is impeded in its progress from Lough Neagh to 

 the ocean by low and scattered rocks rising occasionally above its surface, so as to 

 change the smooth mirror into a scene of active and "lusty life," delightful to the 

 angler's heart. Swifts to the number of not less than a hundred, kept almost on the 

 same level with the others. 



In Malta, on the 17th of April, 1841, the day being very fine and warm, our four 

 Hirundinidce were in like manner observed in company, flying low, wherever we 

 walked about the island ; all the species were in numbers similar to what they are in 

 their most favoured haunts in the British Islands. This is a fortnight earlier than 

 the swift generally appears in the north of Ireland. 



