55 
MIGRATION OF THE COMMON SWALLOW 
{HI RUN DO RUSTIC A L.).* 
H. B. BOOTH, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 
In the first place, may I sincerely thank the members of the 
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union for the very great honour they 
have conferred upon me in electing me their President. There 
is one sad event that has always hung its shadow over me as 
your President for this year. I refer to the death of our highly 
esteemed and deeply lamented friend and member, the late 
Dr. H. H. Corbett. I believe it is the first occasion upon which 
an elected President of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union did 
not survive to give his presidential address. 
The Common Swallow, also known as the Chimney Swallow, 
because of its former habit of building its nest in the old- 
fashioned open chimneys. It is also known in some parts of 
the country, as well as in Sweden, as the Barn Swallow, a very 
appropriate name, as it is very fond of making its nest on a 
beam or rafter in a barn. 
For the purpose of this paper, I shall ask you to consider, 
the Swallow as a bird nesting in Europe, and spending the 
period of our winter in Africa. This is not strictly accurate, 
as our Swallow also nests in north-west Africa and in south- 
western Asia, these latter birds spending the winter period in 
India, its islands, and in Ceylon. I must not use the words so 
frequently used, viz. : winters in, because the Swallow, and 
other long-distance summer migratory birds know not any 
winter ; they are birds of perpetual summer. As soon as 
our European summer is waning, and the domestic duties of 
the birds finish, they flit away thousands of miles to the summer 
that then is just commencing in the southern hemisphere. In 
Western Asia, H. rustica is. irretrievably mixed up with the 
eastern race ( H . gutturalis), and other geographical races 
extend almost over the whole habitable parts of the globe, 
with the exception of New Zealand. In Egypt there is a closely 
allied resident and non-migratory race : Hirundo savignii. 
The Swallows usually arrive in Yorkshire during the second 
half of April and early in May. Although everyone is delighted 
to see the first Swallow, and to think of brighter days in store, 
yet the first Swallow is usually an erratic and uncertain 
straggler, and it is not safe to base any scientific or other cal- 
culation upon the time of his arrival, and the proverb that ‘A 
single Swallow does not make a summer ’ is a very true one. 
I have noticed that whether Swallows arrive earlier or later, 
more depends on the weather in the south of Europe than upon 
the weather here. Say, for instance, there is a prolonged spell 
of bad weather in France, Spain and Portugal, the birds are held 
up, and have to spend most of their time in finding sufficient 
* Presidential Address to the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, delivered 
at Hull, December 3rd, 1921 . 
1922 Feb. 1 
