3806 Birds. 



premises of the bakers. Some foreign newspapers had erroneously spoken of the 

 weather as fine in Belgium, but there had been only three tolerably fine days since the 

 21st of March, and the average temperature since the 25th of that month had been 

 8^ Fahr. below the mean. — From the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, May 21, 

 1851. 



Swallows in November. — On the 10th of last November I saw about twenty house- 

 martins (Hirundo urbica) under the cliff above I^emptown, Brighton — the day warm 

 and wind S.E. They were sporting about as if it had been the middle of summer. 

 Vast numbers of Hies are generated in the decaying sea-weed on the beach, which 

 would afford plenty of food. Previously to the departure of the great body of the 

 swallows, about the end of September or beginning of October, the roofs of the 

 houses in Arundel Terrace, the last houses east of Brighton, are covered with them, 

 but I have never met with any one (and I have asked many of the men on the Coast 

 Service), who has actually seen them take their departure. They are said never to 

 leave when the wind blows in the direction of their flight, but that they select a light 

 wind blowing against them, to avoid the ruffling of their feathers. — R. Wakefield ; 

 1 1, Sussex Place, Regent's Park, February 5, 1852. 



Supposed occurrence of a specimen of the Severn Swallow (Hirundo bicolor, Vieill.), 

 at Derby, in 1850. — The notice of the supposed occurrence of the rufous swallow at 

 Penzance (Zool. 3753), reminds me that I ought not any longer to delay recording in 

 your pages, the supposed appearance of an individual of an American species of swal- 

 low at Derby, in 1850. I say supposed appearance, because, though I have not much 

 doubt that the bird was really shot at Derby, there is nevertheless quite a possibility 

 of mistake. Some months ago, my friend, Mr. John Evans of Darley Abbey, sent 

 for my inspection, and afterwards kindly presented to me, the skin of a sort of swal- 

 low whose name he had not been able to ascertain, of which he gave me the following 

 account :— One day that he called at the shop of Mr. Cooke, a bird-stuffer and museum- 

 keeper in Derby, in the summer of the year 1850, he was shown the skin of a bird 

 which had lately been shot at the Siddals (the name of some common land, I believe, 

 in the suburbs of Derby), with eleven sand-martins, with which this had been consi- 

 dered to make a twelfth ; in skinning them, Mr. Cooke had remarked that it was not 

 like the others, and he thought it a variety, but asked Mr. John Evans his opinion 

 about it. That gentleman did not know what it was, but he bought the skin for one 

 shilling, and has had it in his possession from that time till he gave it to me some 

 months ago, as I mentioned before. Mr. Cooke is since dead. The circumstance of 

 his having skinned the birds himself, makes it appear improbable that he should have 

 made a mistake, and Mr. John Evans assures me that he does not think there were 

 any foreign skins about. I should add, that I believe there is no possibility of error 

 since the skin came into Mr. John Evans' possession. The bird now before me is very 

 like the house-martin, and not much like the sand-martins in whose company it was 

 said to have been found. When compared with the former bird, the only difference 

 seen at first is the continuous dark colour of the back, instead of there being white 

 over the tail. On a further examination, the legs are found to be quite naked below 

 the knees, instead of downy, as in our martin. These characters are I believe sufficient 

 to refer it to the well-known American species called Hirundo (or Chelidon) bicolor, 

 and I find my skin to agree with the several specimens of it in the British Museum. 

 It is useless to give a particular description unless in comparison with a skin of the 

 house-martin, one of which I do not happen to have at hand. It is enough to say 



