85 
MIGRATION OF THE COMMON SWALLOW 
(. HIRUNDO RUSTIC A L.). 
H. B. BOOTH, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 
( Continued from page 60). 
I should like to give a short quotation written by Colonel 
Legge of Ceylon. The birds referred to were H. rustica ; but 
probably their homes would be in Western Asia. He says ‘ It 
arrives usually in the north of the island about the second or 
third week in September, the young birds coming in first. Its 
numbers are increased considerably in about a fortnight after 
its first appearance, and it then begins to spread southward, 
but irregularly, as its movements perhaps depend upon the 
break up of the south-western monsoon to some extent.’* 
Mr. E. C. Chubb of the Rhodesian Museum, Bulawayo, 
writing ‘ On the Birds of Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia,’ says,f 
‘ The Common Swallow ( H. rustica ) , began to arrive here about 
the middle of October, and the greater number of them le,ft 
again about the middle of April, although a few were seen as 
late as April 27th and 28th.’ 
Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe in dealing with a * Collection of 
Birds from the District of Deelf ontein,’ J explains that Deel- 
fontein is about 4700 feet above sea level and is situated in 
about the centre of Cape Colony. He also adds, ‘ The field- 
notes supplied to me by our young collectors, Seimund and 
Grant, of the Imperial Yeomanry, cannot fail to be of interest.’ 
Under H. rustica, these well-known ornithologists remark, ‘Very 
common in the winter months, the young arriving before the 
old birds, which follow about three weeks later.’ This is an 
Interesting note, as it shows that even so far south on the 
journey the old birds had not overtaken the young unguided 
birds. But no doubt with old and young birds travelling 
together, the speed would be regulated by the strength and 
power of endurance of the younger birds. This is very different 
from the journey north in our spring, when it is well-known 
that the more vigorous birds outstrip and leave their fellows 
in their apparent anxiety to get to their real home, and their 
breeding grounds. Dr. Sharpe comments on the state of the 
plumage of an adult male Swallow shot at Deelf ontein, on 
December 13th, 1902 : ‘ The December bird has completed 
most of the moult, but still retains the old quill-feathers.’ Mr. 
W. L. Sclater, then the Director of the South African Museum, 
Cape Town, in ‘ A Paper read before Section D of the British 
Association,’ at its meeting in Johannesburg in 1905, on ‘ The 
* Sharpe and Wyatt, in ‘ A Monograph of the Swallows,’ p. 226. 
t The Ibis., 1909, p. 155. J .The. Ibis, 1904, p. 315, etc. 
1922 Mar. 1 
