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Saunders writes (Ibis, 1871, p. 205) as follows: —“<I was informed that the usual date of the 
appearance of the Swallow at Malaga was 25th January; but I did not actually observe it till 
4th February in 1868 (an exceptionally cold year). I found many broods hatched by 16th April 
in the herdsmen’s huts south of Seville.” Throughout the whole of Southern Europe it is to be 
met with during the summer, arriving in March or April. Savi, quoting the Italian proverb, 
“Per San Benedetto la rondine é sul tetto,” remarks that it is a fact that by about the 21st 
March some Swallows have arrived, but the main body do not appear before April. It is 
numerous in Sicily and Sardinia; and Mr. C. A. Wright, referring to its occurrence at Malta, 
says (Ibis, 1864, p. 57) that it “arrives in great numbers early in March, and may be seen in 
town and country till May. At the end of August, on its return southward, it again makes its 
appearance, and is plentifully spread over the island till October.” In Greece and Turkey it is 
found numerously during the summer, but does not appear, according to Lindermayer, to be so 
numerous as the House-Martin in Greece. In Southern Russia, where, as elsewhere, it breeds 
commonly, it arrives in April. In Palestine it meets with its near ally Hirundo savignit, which, 
however, is a resident, whereas the present species is a migrant, remaining only during the 
breeding-season, and passing south to winter. In North-east Africa the present species is seen 
in summer and at the two seasons of passage; and stragglers may also remain there over winter; 
for Captain Shelley says that he saw an immature bird in the Nile delta on the 25th February. 
In North-west Africa it breeds, but does not, as a rule, remain over the winter; and probably 
those few that are observed during the winter season are birds of late broods which have been 
hatched in the north of Europe, and have therefore arrived very late in North Africa. Canon 
Tristram, speaking of these birds observed in Algeria in the winter, writes (Ibis, 1859, p. 435) as 
follows :—“ A few pairs of Swallows remained all the winter in each oasis; but none of those 
observed were in mature plumage, and I therefore presume that it is only the younger and 
weaker birds who stay behind. The Arabs informed me that for one Swallow they have in 
winter they have twenty in summer, and that they usually retire about the end of November, 
returning in February, though in the beginning of that month I saw myriads on the wing at 
Biskra, which must have remained for some time in that neighbourhood, as they did not 
reappear in any considerable numbers in Tunis till the beginning of March. But throughout 
the whole winter a few were to be seen wherever there was water or marsh.” Mr. Taczanowski 
saw a single specimen at Lake Fezzara in December, and adds that the main body arrived in 
March, and that by about the beginning of April those birds which remained to breed had taken 
up their nesting-quarters and commenced building. In the winter season the Swallow is found 
throughout Africa as far south as the Cape of Good Hope, and has been recorded from the Gold 
Coast, the Gaboon, Camma river, Damara Land, and Cape colony. Governor Ussher states (Ibis, 
1874, p. 62) that he shot birds in incomplete plumage on Connors Hill, near Cape coast, in 
February and March, and adds that it leaves the coast about April, as he never obtained any 
after the first of May. Mr. E. L. Layard speaks of it (B. of S. Afr. p. 55) as being a common 
species in the Cape colony during winter, but none remain there to breed, all leaving for the 
north late in March or early in April; and he remarks that they do not collect in flocks previous 
to departure, but migrate singly; but Mr. Ayres, who says (Ibis, 1863, p. 521) that they arrive 
in Natal in great numbers in November, states that they ‘‘ congregate and leave again in March 
and April.” 
