1916.] 



REPORTS. 281 



Swallow. — Swallows were either late in arriving this Spring, or late in being 

 noted. The first intimation of their coming was a paragraph in the 

 Evening Press of April 18th which ran : " Four swallows were seen flying 

 across Moie de Mouton, Sark, on April 16th. At Guernsey none were 

 reported as having been seen until April 24th, Easter Monday. On that 

 day Miss K. Tardif saw two at L'Islet and one was sporting about at 

 Les Blanches for several hours on the afternoon of the same day. The 

 following day I again saw some— in the early morning, flying over the 

 Fermain cliffs, in the afternoon at Havilland. On April 30th Miss E. 

 Henry observed two at Moulin Huet, and slowly but surely frOm this 

 date onwards Swallows were more frequently seen and became more 

 numerous. At the Yale Mr. Hocart first saw some on April 28th, which 

 was, as he remarks, a very late date, and he adds : " They were scarce at 

 first and the bulk of them left the Vale in the last days of September, only 

 stragglers passing over after." Mr. Hocart saw none after October 19th. 

 Other observers, including my friend Mr. Edward Rammell, Dr. Kin- 

 nersly and Miss K. Tardif, were more fortunate, all of whom chanced to 

 see stragglers as late as the early days of November. The last seen was 

 a solitary little flier at Les Blanches on the 7th, and three observed by 

 Miss Tardif at Le Friquet (St. Martin's) on the 8th. If late in arriving, 

 as they certainly appear to have been, Swallows this year remained on 

 quite to their normal date of departure. 



House Martin. — The House Martin, apparently, as well as the Swallow, 

 was late in appearing. In some years stragglers of both kinds are seen 

 quite early in April and by the middle of the month are certainly due to 

 arrive. This year I saw none until the 24th, when one flew past at Les 

 Blanches. These little birds are never so abundant here as the Swallow, 

 but I am inclined to think that at the time of the autumn migration 

 many make a brief halt here before continuing their journey south, for 

 small companies are frequently to be seen about this time. My last date 

 for seeing House Martins this year was October 2nd, but Mr. Rammell 

 saw several on the 24th, which is still, however, an early date for losing 

 sight of them altogether. 



Swift. — Mr. Thoburn-Clarke, in the article in Country Life, from which I 

 have already quoted, writes of the Swift as having ' ' a mortal antipathy 

 to both Swallows and House Martins," and he relates how at one place 

 House Martins which had built their nests under the eaves of a ruined 

 house were driven therefrom by the Swifts which morning, noon and 

 night " harried the unfortunate Martins, whirling, circling and shrieking 

 fiendishly close to their nests." Eventually, Mr. Clarke says, the little 

 Martins deserted their nests and departed for another place where Swifts 

 were fewer. I have never noted any antipathy of the sort myself on the 

 part of the Swift ; on the contrary it is not an uncommon sight here in 

 Guernsey to see Swifts, Swallows and Martins all circling about together 

 in apparent very good friendship. Swifts arrived this summer, or were 

 first seen, at quite an early date. On the morning of April 25th I saw 

 two flying about over the Fermain bay cliffs, and later in the day I saw 

 one at Havilland, St. Martin's ; the Town Church flock I did not see any 

 of until May 4th. We have only one earlier recorded date in the Trans- 

 actions (1903-1916) for first seeing Swifts, viz., April 24th in 1909. My 

 own impression is that fewer Swifts than usual have come to us this year ; 

 also that observation shows them to have again left at an early date — the 

 bulk indeed before the end of July. Stragglers only were seen in 

 August and these were few and far between. I saw none after the 20th, 

 when I observed one flying over our garden at Les Blanches. In recent 

 years the Swifts certainly seem to have gone off earlier than formerly. 



Corncrake. — Land Rails have come to the island this summer but again 

 certainly not in numbers, for the Rev. R. H. Tourtel has written me 

 " Corncrake not heard," and Mr. Rammell, who is frequently about the 



