374 
HIRUNDINIDiE. 
Lough Dan. He saw the bird very well, as it admitted of his 
approach within twenty yards : his description agreeing with the 
A. Alcyon , the specimen was shown to him, and he at once iden- 
tified his bird as being of the same species. On his return to the 
country, he again met with and shot the bird, which proved to be 
A. Alcyon. It is now in the collection of Mr. Warren; the 
other was purchased for the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. 
“This kingfisher, said to be the only species inhabiting North 
America, is migratory there, and like other birds which have 
visited Ireland and Great Britain from that continent, has ap- 
peared about the period of migration. As an American bird, it 
is fully treated of by Wilson,* Audubon, t and Bichardson.J The 
last author states, that in summer ‘it frequents all the large rivers 
in the fur countries up to the 67th degree of latitude/ It retires 
to winter in the Southern States, and the West India islands 
(Wilson and Bichar dson). Audubon remarks, that ‘it is ex- 
tremely hardy, and those individuals which migrate northward to 
breed, seldom return towards our Southern States, where they 
spend the winter, until absolutely forced to do so by the great seve- 
rity of the weather/ vol. v.p. 548. This is, I believe, the first notice 
of the species being met with on the eastern side of the Atlantic.” 
THE COMMON SWALLOW. 
Hirundo mstica, Linn. 
Is abundant in summer ; much more so than the other 
species of the family. 
Arrival. It arrives the second in order, being preceded by 
the sand-martin. The earliest appearance of the swallow that I 
have known about Belfast, was in 1846, when on the 30th of 
March, two birds exhibiting the long tail-feathers which denote 
II. rustica , were seen flying over the bay. On the next day, a 
single bird was observed on each side of its shores. A large 
flock of brent-geese was in the bay ; birds representing summer 
and winter being thus seen at the same time. % The picturesque 
* Sir W. Jardine’s edit., vol. i. p. B48. f Orn. Biog. vols. i. and v. 
t Fauna Bor. Amer. p. 339. 
