BANK SWALLOW. 



17 



We observed the arrival of this bird for several years together, in 

 Wiltshire, to be from the twenty-first of April to the tenth of May. 

 It is not uncommon in the north of that county, and is easily dis- 

 covered by its shrill note, which is scarcely to be called a song-, as it is 

 only a repetition of the same whistling note, * (actch, atsh, as Bechstein 

 gives it),* several times in a hurried manner ; besides which it has a soft 

 pleasing song, not to be heard unless very near. It conceals itself in the 

 thickest hedges, and when the foliage is complete, is very difficult to be 

 shot. In such situations, the nest is placed not very distant from the 

 ground, composed of goose grass, neatly but flimsily put together, with 

 a small quantity of wool, very much like that of the white-throat. The 

 eggs are four or five in number, of a bluish white, speckled with brown 

 and ash colour at the larger end, and sometimes a few distant spots all 

 over ; their weight about twenty-five grains. 



*The nest from which our figure was taken, was built low in a bram- 

 ble bush in Kent ; but I have seen them, in filbert trees, at several feet 

 above the ground, as well as in the black-thorn, gooseberry, and broom. 

 The goose "grass, ( Valantia Aparine^) figured also in our vignette, 

 seems an indispensable material for the nest, its reversed and close-set 

 short prickles hooking firmly together, and holding fast what seems so 

 flimsy and frail. I have found the eggs vary very much in shade, as 

 well as in marking ; Montagu's account of them is as near as a general 

 description could well be given.* 



The Babillard does not appear to be a plentiful species in this country, 

 and is confined to the western parts of the kingdom, from Gloucester- 

 shire and Wiltshire, in both which counties we have found them, and is 

 probably in part of Somersetshire, but not in Devonshire or Cornwall. 

 * Selby even doubts its existence ; but Sweet has kept them in a cage 

 for years.* 



*In some seasons it is very plentiful about London ; at other times 

 much scarcer. I am confident I have seen it in Ayrshire, and at Mus- 

 selburgh Haugh, near Edinburgh.* 



BALBUSARDUS — *A name for the Osprey, adopted by Fleming 

 for a new genus. * 



BALD BUZZARD.— A name for the Osprey. 



BALD COOT. — A provincial name for the Coot. 



BALD GOOSE. — A name for the Laughing Goose. 



BANK SWALLOW {Hirundo riparia, Linnaeus.) 



* Hirundo riparia, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 344. 4. — Faun. Suec. No. 273. — Gmel. Syst. 

 1. p. 1019. — Lath. Tnd. Orn. 2. p. 575. 10.— Ran, Syn. p. 71. A. 3. — Will. p. 

 156, t. 39.—Briss. 2. p. 506.— Wils. Amer. Orn. 5. p. 46. pi. 38. f. 4.— 

 L'Hirondelle de Rivage, Buff. Ois. 6. p. 632.— Ib. PI. Enl. 543. f. 2. the 



