Our Summer Migrants / An Account of the Migratory Birds Which Pass the Summer in the British Islands.

THE SWALLOW. ( Hirundo rustica. )

Few birds have attracted more attention in all countries and in all ages than the Swallows; and the habits of those species which annually visit the British Islands have been so thoroughly investigated and so frequently described, that little originality can be claimed for the remarks which I have now to offer.

There are two points, however, in the natural history of these birds which do not appear to have received from their biographers so much attention as they deserve, viz., the nature of their food, and their geographical distribution. I have repeatedly been asked, “What do Swallows feed upon?” and “Where do Swallows go in winter?” To these two questions I will now endeavour to reply, believing that an exposition of such facts as have been ascertained on these points will be more acceptable to the reader than a repetition of what has been so frequently published on the subject of habits, haunts, dates of arrival, and other minor details.

First, then, as regards food. Dr. Jenner found that Swallows on their arrival in this country, and for some time afterwards, feed principally on gnats; but that their favourite food, as well as that of the Swift and Martin, is a small beetle of the ScarabÆus kind, which he found, on dissection, in far greater abundance in their stomachs than any other insect. A writer in the “Magazine of Natural History,”[60] Mr. Main, states that they take two species of gnat, Culex pipiens and C. bifurcatus; and Sir Humphrey Davy saw a single Swallow capture four Mayflies that were descending to the water, in less than a quarter of a minute. Mr. Thompson says[61] that a correspondent of his, Mr. Poole, has found the mouths of young birds filled with TipulÆ, and that Mr. Sinclair, an accurate ornithologist, remarked a number of Swallows flying for some time about two pollard willows, and on going to the place ascertained that the object of pursuit was hive bees, which, being especially abundant beneath the branches, he saw captured by the birds as they flew within a few yards of his head. The assertion that Swallows take honey bees was long ago made by Virgil, and, though not often noticed by writers on British Birds, the fact has several times been corroborated. A writer in the “Field Naturalist’s Magazine” for 1834 (p. 125), stated that, having observed some Swallows seize bees in passing his hives, he shot them, and on opening them carefully, found that, although they were literally crammed with drones, there was not a vestige of a working bee. We learn from Wilson[62] that in the United States bees constitute part of the ordinary food of the Purple Martin; and the Sand Martin has been observed to prey upon the common wasp. Gilbert White remarked that both Swifts and Swallows feed much on little Coleoptera, as well as on gnats and flies, and that the latter birds often settle on the ground for gravel to grind and digest their food. At certain times in the summer he had observed that Swifts were hawking very low for hours together over pools and streams, and, after some trouble, he ascertained that they were taking PhryganeÆ, EphemerÆ, and LibellulÆ (Cadew-flies, May-flies, and Dragon-flies), that were just emerged out of their aurelia state. The indigestible portions of their food are rejected in the shape of small pellets, just as with the birds of prey. Apropos of these observations, Mr. J. H. Gurney, in October, 1871, wrote me as follows:—“The perusal of your interesting remarks relative to the food of the Chimney Swallow, and especially with reference to its bee-eating propensities, induces me to send you a note of an analogous habit of which I have heard, in one instance, in the Common Swift. An intelligent shepherd in Norfolk, with whom I am acquainted, and who keeps bees, states that a pair of Swifts which nested in the roof of his cottage were so destructive to his bees, by catching them on the wing when they happened to fly rather higher than usual, that he at length destroyed the Swifts in order to free his bees from their attacks. With reference to the food of the House Martin, I may mention that some years since, as I was watching some of these birds skimming over a roadside pond early in the month of May, one of them, as it flew past me, dropped at my feet a water beetle of the genus Dytiscus, nearly, if not quite, half an inch in length. Possibly it had captured a prey too large to be conveniently swallowed.” All the HirundinidÆ drink upon the wing, and are perhaps the only birds that do not alight for this purpose, unless perhaps the Terns and some of the Gulls may be also exceptions to the general rule.

With regard to their winter quarters and geographical distribution, it will be best to trace the movements of each species separately.

The Chimney Swallow (Hirundo rustica), whose early appearance in the spring is only preceded by that of the Sand Martin, spends at least six months of the year with us, and in some years more than seven months. The period of its visit, however, may be said briefly to extend from April to October. Between these two months the bird is found generally distributed throughout Europe, going as far north as Iceland[63] and Nova Zembla,[64] and penetrating even into Siberia and Amurland.[65]

The only Swallow hitherto observed in Greenland—and that only on two occasions—is, according to Professor Reinhardt, the American Swallow, Hirundo rufa of Bonaparte. Now, Bonaparte identifies this (Geogr. and Comp. List, p. 9) with H. rufa of Gmelin, and Professor Baird considers Gmelin’s bird to be the South American species, for which H. erythrogaster of Boddaert is the oldest name. If this identification be correct, one would certainly expect the bird found in Greenland to be the North American species, H. rufa of Vieillot, not Bonaparte, now generally better known by its older name, H. horreorum of Barton. The late Mr. Wheelwright observed the Common Swallow in Lapland, where he saw it hawking about over the high fells at Quickjock, and he fancied it was even commoner there than at Wermland, in Sweden, where it is also an annual summer visitant.[66] Throughout Europe generally, as already remarked, it is everywhere distributed in summer, and in the countries bordering the Mediterranean it is especially abundant at the periods of migration in spring and autumn. Mr. Wright has observed it arriving in Malta in great numbers from the south early in March, and again, on its return southwards in autumn, it is common over the island until October. On the island of Filfla, a few miles south of Malta, the same observer has noticed it in May. At Gibraltar and in Spain Mr. Howard Saunders has detected it as early as February, making its way north; and, as an instance of how these delicate birds at times get blown out of their course by adverse winds, it may be remarked that Prince Charles Bonaparte saw Swallows and Martins at sea 500 miles from Portugal and 400 miles off the coast of Africa. Sir William Jardine has recorded the presence of the Swallow at Madeira, and Mr. Osbert Salvin, writing on May 28 (“Ibis,” 1859, p. 334), says: “Some Swallows came on board when we were 180 miles north-west of the Azores, so that it is probable that the bird is found in these islands.”

On the Senegal River and at Sierra Leone it may be seen all the year round, but is less numerous there from June to September.[67] On the West Coast of Africa the Swallow appears to travel as far south as the island of St. Thomas on the equator, where Mr. Yarrell states it has been met with in January and February.

In Tangier and Eastern Morocco Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake says the Swallow is found throughout the year, but the Martin and Sand Martin, he believes, do not winter there. (“Ibis,” 1862, p. 425.)

The Swallow has been noticed as plentiful at Tripoli in the middle of March (Chambers, “Ibis,” 1867, p. 99), and Mr. Osbert Salvin observed it in Algeria, between Constantine and Batna, where he found several nests among the rafters of an open shed. According to the Rev. Canon Tristram—than whom there is no better authority on the subject of North African and Palestine birds—a few pairs of Swallows remain all the winter in each oasis in North Africa, wherever there is water or marsh; but none of those which he observed were in mature plumage, and it is therefore presumed that only the younger and weaker birds stay behind. The Arabs informed him that for one Swallow they have in winter they have twenty in summer, and that they usually retire about the end of November, returning in February. In November, also, they have been observed to be common at Alexandria and Cairo (E. C. Taylor, “Ibis,” 1859, p. 47); and on the 5th of November, when leaving Aden, Mr. Swinhoe remarked that a few Swallows followed the ship, apparently bound for the Indian coast. According to the observations of Mr. E. C. Taylor (“Ibis,” 1867, p. 57), this species reappears in Egypt about March 25, and is common at Cairo and Damietta in April. RÜppell, in his “Systematische Uebersicht der VÖgel Nordost-Afrika’s,” includes the Swallow (p. 22) as being found in Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia; and as regards the last-named country, Mr. Blanford has remarked[68] that it is common everywhere, and that he found it especially abundant on the shores of Annesley Bay in June.

Continuing a search for this species southward along the East Coast of Africa, it will be found that, according to the observations of Mr. Ayres in Natal, the Swallow arrives in that colony in great numbers in November, congregating and leaving again in March and April. Mr. Layard found it to be an annual winter visitant to the Cape Colony, and on one occasion when sailing from New Zealand to the Cape of Good Hope, on the 28th of November, he saw a Swallow and a Sand Martin fly about the ship for some time. He was then in lat. 33° 20', long. 31° 50', and about 290 miles from the Cape. Several insects (Libellula, Agrostis, and Geometra) were caught on deck, and we may presume, therefore, that the birds found sufficient food to support them at that distance from land.

Passing eastward through Sinai and Palestine, where Canon Tristram has observed the Swallow in December,[69] we learn from Mr. Blyth that it is common in the north-west provinces of India during the winter months. Capt. Beavan saw it at Darjeeling in 1862, and Maunbhoom in 1864-65, where both old and young were very common in January and February, hawking over rice-kates and near tanks. In Northern Japan it was observed by Capt. Blakiston, and in North China by Mr. Swinhoe. Referring to a species of Swallow which he observed in Formosa, Mr. Swinhoe says (“Ibis,” 1863, p. 255): “In its habits, in nest and colour of eggs, &c., this bird entirely agrees with the European H. rustica; yet in size it is always smaller, and in minor personal features different. It ranges in summer from Canton to Pekin, and Mr. Blyth assures me that it is identical with specimens procured in winter in Calcutta; hence I infer that the birds which visit China in spring, and uniformly leave again in autumn, return to hybernate in the warm plains of India.”

Mr. Blyth has remarked (“Ibis,” 1866, p. 336), “that the average of adult Swallows from the Indian region and China are smaller than the average of European examples, to the extent sometimes of an inch in length of wing; but some Indian are undistinguishable from European specimens.”

Dr. Jerdon, in his “Birds of India,” says: “On carefully comparing specimens from England and Algiers in the museum at Calcutta with Indian specimens from various parts of the country, I can detect no difference.”

In a notice of the birds of the Andaman Islands which appeared in the “Ibis” some years since, Capt. Beavan remarked that the European Chimney Swallow visits these islands at certain seasons, and is not at all uncommon.

There is no evidence that it ever visits Australia; but Mr. Gould has described a Swallow from Torres Straits under the name Hirundo fretensis, which is certainly very like our well-known H. rustica, and might be a young bird of that species in autumn plumage. It is singular that no Swallows visit New Zealand. It cannot be that the islands are too distant from Australia, where several species of Swallow abound, because, as Mr. Layard has remarked, two, if not three, species of Cuckoo (Eudynamys taitensis and Chrysococcyx lucidus) perform the journey in their annual migration twice a year.

The attachment of Swallows to the neighbourhood of water at roosting-time—which formerly led to the supposition that they actually retired under water for the winter—may be easily accounted for by the circumstance that the willow branches not only afford them most convenient perches, but enable the birds to crowd close together, and so secure greater warmth to individuals than they could possibly enjoy if each roosted upon a separate twig in trees or shrubs of different growth.

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