5060 Birds. 



Migration of the Swallow Tribe.— 1852. July 27. A fine calm evening: observed 

 some forty or fifty swifts (the first I had seen for some months) flying very low, and 

 after sweeping round the house for a few minutes, rose almost perpendicularly to an 

 immense height, so as to appear mere specks in the distance. 



1852. September 24, 9 a. m. Remarked that some hundreds of swallows 

 had collected on the roofs of the houses situated on the edge of the cliffs, where 

 I have observed they annually assemble in considerable numbers before taking 

 their final departure : some were clinging to the walls, others creeping under the 

 eaves, and then rising altogether they would wheel round the buildings, and settle 

 down again to sun themselves after the heavy dew of the previous night. 



„ November 4. Had several swallows about the cottage : they would occa- 

 sionally alight on a twig or a bramble in the garden hedge, which frequently proving 

 too weak and slender to support them, it was amusing to observe the very awkward 

 manner in which they endeavoured to keep their footing and preserve their equili- 

 brium, but when they did succeed they appeared to enjoy the warmth of the sun, after 

 the rainy and tempestuous weather to which they had been exposed. 



„ November 12. Black Martin. — Was greatly surprised at seeing one of these 

 rare birds in company with several common ones. I endeavoured to shoot it, but 

 failed in doing so, the garden being surrounded by houses. 14th, Again observed the 

 black martin between this and B unchurch . 



1853. Septemper 17, 8 a. m. Observed that several hundreds of swallows had 

 assembled on the houses near the cliffs, not only the roofs of which were covered, but 

 the chimneys too : they had also settled in great numbers on some scaffolding fixed 

 to one of the houses. 



1854. September 7. Remarked this morning a great number of sand martins : 

 first noticed them on the 5th, and again on the 6th ; they were all arriving from the 

 westward, in small detached parties of from fifteen to twenty ; their flight, although 

 rapid, was wavering and irregular, not unlike that of a butterfly. They were flying 

 against the wind, which had been blowing from the eastward for a week or more: shot 

 one, which proved by its variegated and beautiful plumage to be a young bird: I 

 believe they are now migrating, and beating up against the wind to gain the narrowest 

 part of the Channel for crossing. 



„ November. Saw several martins flying on to the roof of a house near my 

 garden-gate, where they frequently resort towards evening to roost in the holes about 

 the eaves : they were so tame, or fatigued, that some boys who were endeavouring to 

 knock them down with long sticks failed to scare them away. 



1855. September 10,9 a. m. Saw innumerable swallows and martins: there 

 were also some sand martins, all the latter seemingly coming from the westward. 

 About ten o'clock a great number of swallows assembled on the roofs and chimneys of 

 the houses on the cliffs, near the sea (their usual resort), which is about the most 

 southern point of the island. I am inclined to think, from their manner of flying, as 

 well as from their general appearance, that they are mostly young birds, those shot by 

 me late of a season having generally proved to be so. 



One autumn (a year or two since, at £-past 7, a.m.), there were, as I was informed 

 by my sons, hundreds of swallows seen by them at the above hour on the houses on 

 the cliffs : they were so numerous and so fatigued that they flocked to and settled on 

 a pole, which had been thrust out of one of the windows by a boy living in the house, 

 who was amusing himself by occasionally shaking them off, which brought some of the 



