418 
HIRUNDINimE. 
month they were plentiful at Trieste; and in July at Venice 
(remarkably so there), Verona, Milan, & c. 
White of Selborne and Macgillivray give very copious and 
interesting accounts of the swift, from personal observation. 
THE ALPINE SWIET. 
White-bellied Swift. 
Cypselus melba , Linn, (sp.) 
Hirundo ,, „ 
Cypselus alpinus , Scop, (sp.) 
Is an extremely rare visitant. 
My attention was called by the Dublin Penny Journal, of March, 
1833, to a rare bird, said to have been killed at Rathfarnham, in 
the neighbourhood of the metropolis, and added to the fine col- 
lection of native birds belonging to Thomas W. Warren, Esq., of 
Dublin. On calling to see this bird (as subsequently stated in 
the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1834, p. 29) I found 
it to be the Cypselus alpinus , a species then unrecorded as having 
occurred in any part of Ireland. The specimen recognised as the 
alpine swift by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire, and communicated by him to 
Mr. Selby as an addition to the British Eauna, was obtained off 
Cape Clear, at the distance of some miles from land. Mr. War- 
rerds specimen is incorrectly stated in the Journal, to have been 
captured in the month of Eebruary, as, according to a note made 
by that gentleman at the time, the bird was sent to him from 
Rathfarnham, on the 14th of March : it was in a perfectly fresh 
state. 
I am informed by Robert Warren, Esq., junr., Castle Warren, 
county of Cork, that an alpine swift was shot near Doneraile, 
in that county, in June, 1844 or 1845, by a friend in whose 
company he was at the time. Common swifts and swallows were 
flying about the locality. 
Since Mr. Sinclaire’s bird was obtained, four individuals of this 
