66 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
old Mansion House of Jardine Hall was pulled down, previous 
to which two or three pairs of Martins tenanted every 
window. Now a few pairs only are to be found. The 
Martins are strictly gregarious, "^^^g ^^''f „f Vt£ 
Rooks and Herons."* Again, in 1839 : ' Of the little 
white rumped Swallow which used to breed m hundreds 
we have not a single nest ; such are the changes m circum- 
stances fitting to these creatures."! 
Throughout the county a lamentable decrease m the 
numbers of the House-Martins that visit us has been 
observed during the last five and twenty or thirty years^ 
Mr. R. Service, reviewmg the changes m the vertebrates of 
Solway during the past century, wrote in 1901 : Scores 
of farmhouses where it used to breed have now not a smgle 
pair attached to them. It has been a leged that great 
numbers of this homely Uttle bird are killed on passage 
through France and Italy. While that is midoubtedly the 
case, I am rather inclined to beheve that its mcreasing 
scarcity here is caused by some obscure climatic change t 
It is difficult, on account of its presence in some locahties 
in small colonies, and its absence from others to compare 
its numbers with those of the more generaUy dispersed 
Swallow, but of the two species it appears to be the least 
numerous As regards its arrival in this county, the House- 
MaX il'usuall/preceded by ^^^^ Swallow, and i^^sj 
frequently confused with the latter that it would be difficult 
to arrive at an average date for its appearance, were such 
a calculation deemed necessary. An old record from 
Kirkmichael in 1791 says: "The house and window 
swallows arrive about the 20th of ^pnl and depart from 
the fourth to the thirteenth of September,"! and these 
dates may still be said to hold good in a general way. In 
mil saw a single House-Martin at Capenoch (Keir) on 
* New StaL AccL Scot, Vol. IV., p. 180. 
t Sir W. Jardine, in lUt., to P. J. Selby, July 2nd, 1839. 
X Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, November 16th, 1900. 
§ Stat. Acct. Scot.y Vol. I., p. 61. 
