14 Birds. 



Two pairs of swifts are breeding in St, Philip's church ; they amved 

 the beginning of May. When out late at night entomologising, I 

 often see the swifts going back to their nests, which are several miles 

 off. The common fly-catcher [Butalis grisola) was seen May the 7th, 

 1841, and on the 8th of May, 1842. My notes of departure in 1841, 

 were — the last chifF- chaffs and warblers were seen September 17th ; 

 all the flycatchers left between the 15th and 18th of September; there 

 were a few swallows and martins near the source of the Derwent. On 

 the morning of September 29, there was a complete equinoctial gale ; 

 at noon many swallows were flying about, but all hurried southward 

 in the evening. 



A friend of mine, well acquainted with birds, told me he saw a sin- 

 gle swallow going south on October 9th. It is most probable that 

 nearly all our summer birds go to winter in the north of Africa, some 

 remaining in the south of Spain, for wings of the warblers have been 

 brought from the latter country in the winter, by persons that were 

 not able to skin. On the American continent we find that from an 

 equal range of districts there is a similar flocking to the equator. — 

 Many of the migratory birds visit the same locality year after year; 

 a pair of flycatchers [Butalis grisola) built their nest for eight or 

 ten summers on a leaden water-conductor at the top of our house ; 

 another pair fix their nest every year on the branches of our wall- 

 fruit trees, and notwithstanding the cats often destroy it, they still 

 persevere. A pair of redstarts in the same manner build in a wall by 

 us. It is well known that martins return to the same nest ; ofter over 

 a country inn door, where it is almost impossible to drive them away, 

 I have seen blocks of wood nailed on the spouts as the only alterna- 

 tive. The return of the same individuals is given by my friend Mr. 

 Audubon in his ' Biography of the Birds of America,' ii. 122, in the 

 article Muscicapa fusca : in this instance the female was killed, and the 

 male brought a new mate to the old nest. I cannot from experience 

 prove, but it seems most probable, that there is more certainty of the 

 return of the female to the same place with a new partner, when some 

 accident has befallen the male, since she has more to do with the 

 cares of incubation. I hope some one more competent to write on 

 migration will give their views in future numbers of * The Zoologist.' 

 — Jo]i7i Heppensiall ; Upperthorpe, near Sheffield, June 17, 1842. 



The Osprey, (Pandion Haliaetos). Three specimens, shot near 

 Sheffield, have come under my notice. A fine male in my collection 

 I received alive, but very far spent, it having been kept more than a 

 week in a close attic, where they had vainly endeavoured to feed it 



