Booth : Migration of the Common Swallow. 59 
districts, and often augmented by birds that have bred further 
to the north ; and have accidentally met on passage. By the 
middle of October, emigration here is practically over, with 
this species, excepting for stray birds. 
Much has been written about flight-lines, and many largely 
imaginary lines have been drawn. With these I don’t intend 
to deal, as I don’t consider them to be essentially applicable 
to the species under notice. In fact, there is a good deal of 
evidence accumulating which tends to prove that , some birds 
do not return by the same route by which they departed. The 
‘ ringed ’ systems have not so far thrown much light on the 
routes taken by British emigrant Swallows. A nestling marked 
at Southport on August 31st, 1917 had reached the Isle of 
Wight by October 23rd.* Another bird ringed near Lancaster, 
on June 29th, 1910, was recovered at Villedon, Indre et Loire, 
near the centre of France, f It is evident that this bird was 
not travelling the ‘ coast route.’ A nestling ringed in Stafford- 
shire was reported as found dead in Brittany in the following 
December, but it is uncertain how long the bird had been dead, 
and another nestling ringed in Staffordshire was reported from 
the south-west of France (Charente-Inferieure), in the following 
October. Another bird, ringed in Staffordshire as a nestling, 
was found dead after a snowstorm near Bilbao, North Spain, 
in March, and nearly two years after ringing. J 
It is with Swallows ringed here, and taken in their southern 
homes south of the Equator, however, that Mr. Witherby’s 
bird-marking scheme has met with such wonderful success. 
No fewer than five birds marked in Great Britain have been 
recovered in South Africa. 
The first of these was an adult Swallow (believed to be the 
female, as both birds of the pair were marked), which nested 
in a porch at Cheadle, in Staffordshire, and was marked by 
Mr. J. R. B. Masefield, on May 6th, 1911. It was caught in a 
farmhouse, near Utrecht, Natal, on December 23rd, 1912, and 
the ring taken off its leg.§ 
Another Swallow, a nestling, ringed by Mr. R. O. Blyth, 
at Skelmorlie, Ayrshire, on July 27th, 1912, was captured at 
Riet Vallei, District Hundley, Orange Free State, on March 
16th, 1913, and the ring returned to Mr. Witherby. || A third 
bird ringed as a nestling by Mr. F. W. Sherwood, at Lytham, 
Lancashire, on July 3rd. 1915, was picked up dead near Graham- 
stown, Cape Province, South Africa on February 6th, 1916, 
and the ring taken off and returned.** The fourth bird was 
ringed as a nestling by Mr. H. W. Robinson, at Low Bentham 
in the West Riding, on August 10th, 1918. The Bishop of 
Glasgow, who was out on a visit, saw the ring and reported to 
Mr. Witherby that the bird was picked up about the 21st of 
* British Birds, Vol. XII., p. 155. f British Birds., Vol. IV., p. 179. 
% British Birds , Vol. XIII., p. 294. § British Birds, Vol. VI., p. 277. 
|| British Birds, Vol. VII., p. 167. ** British Birds, Vol. IX., p. 298. 
1922 Feb. ] 
