86 Booth : Migration of the Common Swallow. 
Migration of Birds in South Africa/ says:* ‘The English: 
Swallow first arrives at the neighbourhood of Cape Town at the 
end of October, and becomes common in November ; it remains 
here till March, and has entirely disappeared by mid-April/ 
The birds arriving in Central and South Africa are not like the 
clean smart birds that arrived in England in the spring. This 
is what Sharpe and Wyatt, in ‘ A Monograph of the Swallows ’ 
say of them, j* ‘ The Common Swallow arrives in its winter home 
in the same plumage in which it left in the previous spring, 
and, of course, by the time that it reaches its winter habitat 
the bird’s feathers are bleached and worn out. The rufous 
of the forehead and throat becomes nearly white, and the 
beautiful blue colour of the back turns to a dingy brown, while 
the wings are rusty brown.’ 
Although the young birds have only performed a single 
journey, I am told that they are even in a worse plight than 
the older birds, by reason of their feathers being much softer 
and more tender. 
Our Swallow does not breed in the South African summer,, 
although I have several times heard this disputed by South 
Africans, or by Europeans who have lived in South Africa for 
a number of years. As already stated, our Swallow arrives 
as a spring or summer visitor in South Africa, just as it does 
with us. About the same time as our birds arrive, several 
other species of Swallow also arrive from the north, settle 
down, nest, and depart for the north into the tropics when our 
birds leave for the north. In other words they are summer 
migrants to South Africa. Amongst them are three or four 
species of the genus Hirundo, and one, the White-throated 
Swallow ( H . albigularis Strickl.), which is rather difficult to 
distinguish from our Swallow on the wing. It builds a similar 
nest to our Swallow, and fixes it in a similar position and site, 
and its eggs are rather like the eggs of our bird. 
A brother of a friend of mine, in South Africa, still persists 
that the English Swallow nests there. In order to prove it 
he sent home a nest and eggs (which got broken in transit), 
but he did not send the bird ! The adult Swallow spends very 
nearly six months of the year in England. During the remain- 
der of the year it has to perform a journey of anywhere between 
four and six thousand miles, moult every feather and every 
quill, and then return the same number of miles : it can well 
be imagined that it will have sufficient business on hand 
without nesting as well ! As already stated, the Swallows 
leave Cape Town in March on their return journey north, 
excepting a few stray birds that occasionally may be seen 
during the first half of April. I don’t attach much importance 
* Journal S. African Ornith. Union, 1906, p. 16. f p. 216. 
Naturalist 
