14 REPORT ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



considerable interest. Dead calm and hazy; on E. side of 

 lantern ; about 12 p.m. Stomach contained only an oily matter 

 (Geo. Sim) vide Proc. Ryl. Phyl. Soc. Edin. 1884. 



Bell Bock sends excellent schedules as usual. The early 

 advent of a swallow — March 13th and 14th — is commented 

 upon by letter. " It seemed much exhausted." Mr. Hutton, 

 Bank Manager, Royal Bank, Arbroath — a gentleman much 

 interested in ornithology — gave a full account of the occurrence 

 in the ' Dundee Advertiser ' of April.* 



Between April 9th and Sept. 3rd scarcely any migration was 

 observed at Bell Rock — only four records in that time on 

 April 28th, April 30th, May 7th and 9th. But before and after 

 these dates in spring and autumn, considerable migration is 

 recorded in comparison, but decidedly slack, as compared with 



* " About four o'clock in the afternoon of the 13th and 14th March the 

 light-keeper on duty at the Bell Rock Lighthouse observed a swallow 

 fluttering in front of the kitchen window. After watching it for some little 

 time he opened the window and stood aside to see if the bird would come in. 

 This in a minute or two it did, and alighted on the inside of the window- 

 sill. So exhausted did the little wanderer appear from its long flight and 

 the buffetting of the weather that it allowed itself to be lifted up and put 

 into a cage. It immediately lay down on the bottom of the cage and 

 instantly fell fast asleep, remaining in this state till next morning about 

 eight o'clock (sixteen hours). So sound were its slumbers that the keepers 

 watching it as it lay could scarcely detect any signs of life in it, and at times 

 they were almost certain that it had died. On awakening at the hour 

 mentioned the swallow was taken out by one of the keepers and given a 

 drink of water. It was put back into the cage again, where it lay in an 

 apparently dormant condition till 10 a.m., when it was .supplied with more 

 water, under the influence of which and the rays of the sun it became 

 quite lively and strong. The kitchen window was now lifted up and the 

 bird taken out and laid on the open hand of Mr. Jack, principal light- 

 keeper. Besting there for a moment, it gave one cheery twitter, and, 

 springing upwards from the outstretched palm, it winged its way in the 

 direction of the land and was lost sight of irf the space of a minute or two. 

 The appearance of the bird so far north at such an early season is 

 remarkable. The swallow migrates to Africa at the end of October, and 

 it is not till the middle of April that the flight northward begins, so that 

 the one which surprised the light-keepers before March was half run was 

 several weeks earlier than the usual time for their appearance here. It 

 may be added that, the Swallow being an insectivorous bird, the light- 

 house keepers were unable to supply it with its ordinary food, and 

 abstained from giving it any other for fear of injuring.it." 



