322 SWALLOW. 



as they are apt to catch at every thing on the wing, many have 

 caught them by a bait of a cockchafer tied to a thread, and suffered 

 to fly aloft.* They fly chiefly morning and evening, sometimes very 

 high, at other times as low, according to the region the insects may 

 occupy ; and, in exceedingly sultry weather, keep in their holes 

 during the extreme heat of the day. I do not find they have any note 

 beyond a kind of screak. 



Inhabits the whole of the European Continent, as far north as 

 Drontheim, in Norway, and no where in greater plenty than about 

 the high rocks beyond Lake Baikal ; chiefly on the River Onon, where 

 a Variety, with a white rump, is also observed ; and may be traced 

 also to the Cape of Good Hope.f Those which frequent Gibraltar 

 seem larger than ours, weighing full one ounce and a quarter : they first 

 come there from the 20th of March to the beginning of April, when 

 they are in vast numbers ; generally build under the ridges of tiles, 

 which there are hollowed, or semicylindrical, and being placed 

 one over another, as the custom there is, afford sufficient shelter for 

 these birds ; some, indeed, build among the rocks, but in much less 

 proportion : about the end of July, or beginning of August, they 

 congregate in vast multitudes, and suddenly depart before the middle 

 of that month, a very few appearing in September, and beginning of 

 October; generally depart towards the south east, to the east of 

 Tetuan, not in close embodied flocks, but in smaller numbers, six 

 or eight at a time, so that many hundreds have passed within view 

 in the space of three or four hours.J 



I do not recollect to have seen one of this species which deviated 

 from the common colour ; but in the second part of the collection of 

 Natur. Hist, in the Museum at Upsal, one is mentioned which was 

 wholly white.§ 



* In the Isle of Zant, the boys are said to get on an elevated place, and merely with a 

 hook, baited with a feather, have caught five or six dozen of these birds in a day. — Hist. 

 des Ois. 



f Mr. Thunberg found a dead bird in a large excavation in a rock, on his journey to 

 Witteklipp. — Thunb. Trav. ii. p. 9. 



X Rev. J. White. § Mus. Nat. Ac. Ups. par. ii. p. 21. 



