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NOTES— ORNITHOLOG Y. 



Swallows and the late Storm.— The awful weather of the middle of 

 May— the gales, the rain, and the disastrous, unprecedented floods played havoc 

 amongst the newly-arrived and beautiful summer visitants— the Swallows — in some 

 parts of Yorkshire and other counties. Mr. Slater, of Malton, tells me that a score 

 flew into his warehouse completely exhausted and allowed themselves to be handled; 

 others were found dead. The Swifts {Cypselus apus) had arrived only a few days 

 before the storm occurred. I have heard of several House Martins ( Chelidon 

 urbica) and Chimney Swallows {Hirundo rustica) being picked up dead at this 

 place, also at Newton Kyme, and no doubt other records will show the same 

 fatality elsewhere. The Standard of May 15th says that a very remarkable effect 

 of the recent gale is the wholesale destruction of Swallows and other small birds 

 in the northern counties. In Cumberland and Westmoreland the slaughter was 

 terrible. In the gravels of Bassenthwaite station, says the same authority, 200 

 Swallows and Sand Martins {Cotile riparia) have been picked up dead, and at 

 Appleby, Windermere, and other places in the Lake District Swallows have been 

 found dead in scores. A Sheffield paper, describing the floods about Mexborough, 

 states that Swallows in hundreds have been picked up starved to death by the 

 severe weather. What with the rain, the inclement, unseasonable cold, the icy 

 wind and the want of insect food, which could not be got at, the poor birds have 

 almost been decimated, being starved to death, almost frozen, and pitilessly 

 drowned into the bargain. Anyone looking over the fields covered with water to 

 the tops of the hedges in the neighbourhood of Arksey, and Doncaster, and Askern, 

 at our excursion on May 20th, will form some idea of the destruction to bird-life 

 which must have taken place ; not only swallows, but all others that build their 

 nests in hedgerows and ditches and fields must have suffered in immense numbers, 

 as will probably be found when the water subsides. Perhaps such a case in May 

 has not been known within living memory, and it is worth while making a note of 

 it. — John Emmet, Boston Spa, May 28th, 1886. 



A fortnight ago we had a sad week ornithologically in this neighbourhood. 

 Owing to the unusual cold which prevailed, the insects upon which the Swallows 

 and Martins are accustomed to feed were unable to come out, and in consequence 

 these little spring visitors died by scores and hundreds, only the strongest and 

 possibly oldest birds being able to survive ; and even these might be seen sitting 

 helplessly in rows — a hundred or more together upon window-sills or the ironwork 

 beneath bridges, and I noticed some myself (I think Martins), which could fly a 

 little, sitting by the river-side upon the ground, every now and then making a feeble 

 attempt to seize some stray fly or gnat, but apparently quite unable to fly more 

 than a yard or two at a time. Great quantities were picked up in a dead or dying 

 condition both in fields, in gardens, and by the river-side near to the city, whilst 

 numbers of carcasses were to be seen floating down the river Ouse, plainly in- 

 dicating that elsewhere also the destruction had been severe. Many other birds 

 have, I believe, been considerably affected by the cold and nidification is in conse- 

 quence much retarded. Numbers of eggs were laid early in May and afterwards 

 deserted, the parent birds being unable to sit upon them during the cold, rainy 

 weather. — J. Backhouse, junr., West Bank, York, May 27th, 1886. 



From a nesting-hole in the bank of the Mersey I have just taken the remains 

 of fifteen Sand Martins ; there may possibly have been more, but that was the 

 number of skulls I counted in the putrefying mass. The bodies of the birds were 

 huddled together with some broken egg-shells on a nest about 3 feet from the 

 mouth of the hole. From the highly decomposed state of the birds, I am inclined 

 to think that they perished during the severe weather we experienced about the ' 

 middle of May, but they may possibly have been drowned by the flooded river, 

 which rose considerably above the nesting-hole about a fortnight ago. In either 

 case, is it not a curious fact for so many birds to resort for shelter to a hole in 

 which a pair of their own species was nesting? (The broken egg-shells show that 

 nesting operations were going on). On the 16th of May I had two Swallows 

 brought to me. They were picked up on the 13th, in a stable, where they had 

 retreated with several others, and subsequently died from cold and hunger. — 



Chas. Oldham, Sale, Cheshire, June 14th, 1886. 



Naturalist, 



