THE SWALLOWS. 
(. Hirundinidce .) 
HE Swallow family in England is easily recognised and gladly welcomed 
every spring, though the proverb that “ one Swallow does not make 
a summer” is still as true as it was in Aristotle’s time. Often rough, 
cold weather prevails after their arrival; but for the most part spring 
comes in earnest with the Swallow. Its gleeful twitterings, rapid flight, 
trustful association with man, and the direct benefit it is to him in 
destroying flies, have endeared it to all nations. The old Rhodians 
welcomed its return with carols. Only four members of the family frequent 
Great Britain—the Sand Martin, Chimney Swallow, Martin, and Swift— 
which generally appear in their favourite haunts in the order named ; the Sand 
Martin being due about the end of March, while the Swift ordinarily comes in the 
beginning of May. Save in the north of Scotland they are generally diffused through¬ 
out the kingdom. The great lochs of Sutherlandshire present a melancholy aspect to 
the trout-fisher, from Swallows seldom being seen on them save in exceptional years. 
Mr. Harvie Brown, the historian of Sutherlandshire birds, says of the Chimney 
Swallow in the district of Tongue, that “ half-a-dozen Swallows may almost be 
considered to constitute a summer.” He who knows Gilbert White’s “ History of 
Selborne” will there find almost every fact which has been ascertained about the 
