418 hirundinim;. 



month they were plentiful at Trieste; and in July at Venice 

 (remarkably so there), Verona, Milan, &e. 



White of Selborne and Macgillivray give very copious and 

 interesting accounts of the swift, from personal observation. 



THE ALPINE SWIFT. 



White-bellied Swift. 



Cypselus melba, Linn, (sp.) 

 Hirundo „ „ 



Cypselus alpinus, Scop, (sp.) 



Is an extremely rare visitant. 



My attention was called by the Dublin Penny Journal, of March, 

 1833, to a rare bird, said to have been killed at Rathfarnham, in 

 the neighbourhood of the metropolis, and added to the fine col- 

 lection of native birds belonging to Thomas W. Warren, Esq., of 

 Dublin. On calling to see this bird (as subsequently stated in 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1834, p. 29) I found 

 it to be the Cypselus alpinus, a species then unrecorded as having 

 occurred in any part of Ireland. . The specimen recognised as the 

 alpine swift by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire, and communicated by him to 

 Mr. Selby as an addition to the British Eauna, was obtained off 

 Cape Clear, at the distance of some miles from land. Mr. War- 

 ren's specimen is incorrectly stated in the Journal, to have been 

 captured in the month of February, as, according to a note made 

 by that gentleman at the time, the bird was sent to him from 

 Rathfarnham, on the 14th of March : it was in a perfectly fresh 

 state. 



I am informed by Robert Warren, Esq., junr., Castle Warren, 

 county of Cork, that an alpine swift was shot near Doneraile, 

 in that county, in June, 1844 or 1845, by a friend in whose 

 company he was at the time. Common swifts and swallows were 

 flying about the locality. 



Since Mr. Sinclaire's bird was obtained, four individuals of this 



