Part 8

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.

THE MARTIN. (_Hirundo urbica._)

Although arriving in this country somewhat later than the Swallow, the Martin may be said to have nearly the same geographical range. Mr. Yarrell thought that the Swallow did not go so far north as the Martin,[70] but both are found in summer in Iceland and the Faroe Isles. Mr. Dann remarked that there was no want of food for them in Norway and Lapland, as the morasses in the sheltered valleys swarm with insects. During the season that it is absent from England it resides in North Africa, Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia, Palestine, Arabia, and North-west India. Capt. Irby states (“Ibis,” 1861, p. 233) that it is common in the cold season in Oudh, and Col. Tickell observed great numbers at Moulmein; but they appeared from time to time, and not constantly, like _H. rustica_.[71] With regard to Palestine, it seems probable that the Martin spends the greater portion of the year there, for Canon Tristram found it breeding in colonies on the sheltered faces of cliffs in the valleys of Northern Galilee. Mr. Wright says (“Ibis,” 1864, p. 57) that in Malta it is seen at the same seasons as the Swallow, but stays part of the winter, when _H. rustica_ has departed. Dr. Giglioli observes that it arrives at Pisa at the end of March, at which time it has also been noticed at Gibraltar.

The movements of this bird and others of the genus have been concisely illustrated by Mr. Forster in a communication to the Linnæan Society, in the following table, giving the mean date of arrival:

Naples. Rome. Pisa. Vienna. Bruges. London.

Swallow Feb. 27. Mar. 3. Mar. 5. Mar. 25. Ap. 5. Ap. 15. Sand Martin Ap. 3. Ap. 5. Ap. 8. Ap. 12. Ap. 25. Ap. 25. House Martin Ap. 10. Ap. 15. Ap. 16. Ap. 20. May 1. May 1. Swift Ap. 15. Ap. 18. Ap. 20. Ap. 23. Ap. 30. May 3.

The spring tide of migration appears to set in along the entire coast-line of the Mediterranean, and in a direction almost due north. I do not remember to have seen any record of the occurrence of the Martin on the west coast of Africa, although there seems to be no reason why it should not accompany the Swallow there in winter.

Both species will rear two broods in a season; and this fact, doubtless, will account for the prolonged stay in autumn of the later fledged birds, which are not sufficiently strong on the wing to join the main body of emigrants at the usual time of their departure.

THE SAND MARTIN. (_Cotyle riparia._)

This little bird has a much more extensive range than either of the foregoing species, being found in the New as well as in the Old World. In British North America M. Bourgeau obtained both birds and eggs on the Saskatchewan plains. Dr. Coues met with it in Arizona, and Professor Baird has recorded it from California. He says: “It furnishes almost a solitary instance amongst land birds of the same species inhabiting both continents permanently, and not as an accidental or occasional visitor in either.”[72] Mr. H. E. Dresser found it common in Southern Texas, and Mr. O. Salvin obtained several specimens in Guatemala. It has even been met with in the Bermudas, 600 miles from Cape Hatteras, the nearest point of the North American coast.[73]

In Europe the Sand Martin generally makes its appearance in the spring somewhat earlier than any of the other Swallows, and departs sooner. From different stations on the Mediterranean large flocks have been observed at the period of the vernal migration winging their way northward, returning even in greater numbers in the autumn. Mr. O. Salvin saw this species between Tunis and Kef during the third week in March. Canon Tristram, who found it abundant in Palestine in the sandy banks of the Jordan, has suggested that it is double-brooded, since he found it nesting in Egypt in February. The same observer met with it in November on its autumn migration through the Sahara. When passing down the Red Sea, early in November, Mr. Swinhoe saw numerous Sand Martins, which followed the ship for some days, and on arriving at his destination found these birds very common about the marshes at Takoo and before Tientsin in North China. Dr. Leith Adams says[74] that Sand Martins build in numbers along the banks of the Indus, and that in consequence in some places the banks are quite riddled with their holes. Hence it will be seen that this delicate little bird enjoys a more extensive range than any other species of the family.

Before leaving this country in autumn, they assemble in vast flocks, and go through a variety of evolutions on the wing, as if practising for a long flight, alighting from time to time upon the ground, or on willows or reeds by the river-side, to rest. Swallows and Martins do the same, but never congregate—so far as I have observed—in such large numbers.[75]

The Purple Martin (_H. purpurea_) of America is recorded to have been procured once at Kingstown near Dublin; and Yarrell included it in his “History of British Birds,” relying on a statement that two specimens had been shot at Kingsbury Reservoir, in Middlesex, in September, 1842. It has since been ascertained, however, that he was misinformed on the subject. A specimen of this bird, said to have been shot near Macclesfield, was sold at Stevens’s, with other birds from the Macclesfield Museum, on the 14th June, 1861, and realized twenty-eight shillings. With these exceptions, so far as I am aware, no other instance of its occurrence in Europe has been published.

THE COMMON SWIFT. (_Cypselus apus._)

To ordinary observers a Swift appears so much like a Swallow, that the only difference discernible by them is a difference of colour. To the inquiring naturalist, however, a much more important distinction presents itself in the peculiar and remarkable anatomy of the former bird. Not only has it a greater extent of wing, moved by larger and more powerful muscles, but the structure of the foot is curiously adapted for climbing within the narrow crevices which are usually selected as nesting-places. In the Swallow and other _Hirundines_ the toes are long and slender—three in front and one behind in the same plane, as is usual with insessorial birds. In the Swift we find the toes short and stout, and all four directed forwards; the least toe (which should be the hind one) consisting of a single bone, and the other three of only two bones apiece—a peculiar construction, but well adapted for the purposes for which the feet are employed.

This singularity of structure has induced naturalists to consider the Swifts (for there are several species) generically distinct from the Swallows; and the former, therefore, are now placed by common consent in the genus _Cypselus_, a name adopted from Aristotle, and suggested by Illiger, as indicating the bird’s habit of hiding its nest in a hole.

The remarks which have been made upon food in the case of the Swallows, apply equally in the case of the Swifts. The latter have so frequently been observed in localities presenting very different species of insects, and sweeping in the summer evenings through the midst of little congregated parties of various kinds, that there is little doubt that the nature of the food differs very considerably. In corroboration of this it has been shown that anglers have repeatedly captured these birds with artificial trout-flies of very different appearance.[76] Isaak Walton informs us that Swifts were in his time taken in Italy with rod and line; and, according to Washington Irving, one of the sports of the Alhambra was angling for swallows from its lofty towers.[77] There are several species of Swifts distributed throughout the world, but only two visit the British Islands, and of these one is but a rare and accidental visitant.

The Common Swift is the last of the _Hirundines_ to arrive in this country, and the first to leave it. Its habits are very different from those of the Swallows. As a rule it makes no nest, but only lines a hole, into which it creeps; it lays but two eggs (rarely three), instead of five or six like the Swallows; it rears but one brood in the summer, instead of two, or even three, as Swallows often do. The late Mr. J. D. Salmon described[78] some nests of the Swift which he found at Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, and which were composed of bits of straw and dry grass, “closely interwoven and held firmly together by an adhesive substance very much resembling glue, and so disposed round the inner edge of the nest as to hold the straws in their places; the whole forming quite a cup of an oval shape, of about four inches in length, not very deep.” I have often observed the straw and dry grass, with the addition of feathers, but never noticed the “adhesive substance.” Gilbert White thought that the Swift paired on the wing. They may do so occasionally; but, from what I have observed, I feel sure that they pair much oftener in the hole which has been selected to nest in.

Although usually preferring lofty towers and church turrets, the Swift frequently nests under eaves at a comparatively short distance from the ground; and I have had excellent opportunities for some years past of observing Swifts during the breeding season under the eaves of some old cottages in Sussex and Middlesex. By means of a short ladder I have been enabled to inspect many nests both before and after the young were hatched; and, out of a score or more examined, seldom more than one contained three eggs. Sometimes I observed that Sparrows were ejected and their nests appropriated, amidst much remonstrance and screaming; but, as a rule, I have found that Swifts, having once reared their young safely in a new locality, will return to the same hole year after year. Birds have been marked by having their claws cut, and, on being set at liberty, were caught the following year in the holes from which they had first been taken. Unlike most insectivorous birds, which bring but a single insect (or at most two or three) to the nest at a time, the Swift visits its young less frequently in the day, but brings a large store at each visit. The mouth is often so crammed with small black flies, that the bird presents the appearance of having a pouch under the chin, from which it ejects the insects in a lump the size of a boy’s marble.

As a general rule, the Swift is not observed in this country before the third week in May, and is seldom seen after the third week in August. It is found throughout the mainland of the British Islands, and breeds also in Mull and Iona, but not in Orkney or Shetland, nor in the Outer Hebrides. It does not travel quite so far north as either the Chimney Swallow or the Martin, but the late Mr. Wolley saw it on the Faroes,[79] and Mr. Wheelwright frequently observed it hawking over the high fells at Quickjock, Lapland, during the summer.[80]

If we look for the bird during the months that it is absent from Great Britain, we find that it is very abundant at the Cape of Good Hope in winter, arriving about September 5, and departing northwards in April. It is seen in Natal more or less all the year round, but more plentifully during the summer.[81] The climate of Lower Egypt is apparently too cold for this species in winter, but at that season it is resident and abundant in Upper Egypt.[82]