226 
NATURE NOTES. 
All the varieties of what we generally call swallows are 
plentiful in Richmond ; their motions, and the several dates of 
their arrival, down to the latest comers, the magnificent swifts, 
are noteworthy and full of interest. The sand-martins have 
their lively colonies here ; the chimney-swallows and house- 
martins return to their old sites ; the glorious swifts breed in 
their not easily discoverable holes : and all the kinds may be seen 
hawking for flies together over the ponds and the river, or heard 
singing on some quiet tree their sweet but little known song : — 
“ Arguta lacus circumvolitavit hirundo.” 
After sunset, in the evening gloaming, it is pleasant to watch, 
from our verandah, the erratic movements of the bats, mingled 
with the lightning-like career of the swifts, who sometimes utter, 
close to our ears, their battle-like scream ; till, as darkness 
gathers, the birds and bats seem to melt into the gloom and 
vanish from sight. 
There are many birds, we have to bear in mind, which, 
though quite common,' have never, somehow, obtained the 
general recognition that is readily accorded to the robin, the 
lark, the wren, or the cuckoo. But, save in regard to its soft 
yet sweet song, the swallow is known by every child even, and 
looked out for, and welcomed ; and as with the Greek poet of 
twenty-four centuries ago, so now, everyone knows enough to 
say, with Anacreon, of this gentle bird, that 
“ When Nature wears her summer vest, he comes to weave his simple nest ; 
And when the chilling winter lowers, again he seeks the genial bowers 
Of Memphis or the shores of Nile, where sunny hours of verdure smile.” 
Some of the summer migrants are best found outside 
Richmond Park. Priory Lane, which leads from Barnes 
Common to Roehampton Gate, is the place above all to see 
and hear the whitethroats and blackcaps; in the precincts of 
Wimbledon Common we should look for whinchats, stonechats, 
and such like birds ; and the Philistines have not yet wholly 
deprived Sheen Common of those bird-loved copses which may, 
it is hoped, be in time partly restored by persistent efforts on 
the part of the Selborne Society. From Priory Lane we enter 
Richmond Park where it is crossed by the brook whose name 
carries us, in imagination, back to the time when the beavers 
used to form across it their wonderful dams ; and their name is 
preserved by the brook, along with the well-known Yorkshire 
town of Beverley. 
Of the falcon-tribe, the one most frequently seen in Richmond 
is the graceful kestrel or windhover, whose stationary hoverings 
in the air, so wonderfully sustained, are truly amazing. Next 
to the kestrel comes the sparrow-hawk, a proud-looking bird, 
which we may sometimes see dashing into a startled flock of 
small birds, and carrying off one in his deadly gripe. Once 
I was startled by a sparrow-hawk almost rushing against my 
