We hear from all parts of the country of the scarcity of Swallows, and various theories have been offered as to the reason of this. In France their numbers have been for years systematically reduced by the snaring and destruction of them, in various ways, for table use. An instance of this I can personally vouch for. A doctor in Nismes, the brother of a friend of my own, who is keen on bird protection, being in the market one day, was pressed by a poulterer to buy Larks. When he refused, the man, thinking the price was too high for him, took him aside and showed him two hampers apparently full of these birds, which are allowed to be sold there, whereas the massacre of Swallows is illegal. On the top was a layer of Larks, underneath were Swallows only. “These I can do cheaper,” he said. The Midland farmer I alluded to before, Mr. E. Hancock, who writes to me at times, and who has commented on the few Swallows about, sends me a story of a pair nesting in his bedroom. They built over a picture frame, brought out their young successfully, and the youngsters having gone out into the wide world, the two parent birds remained in the home. One roosted regularly on a clock in the bedroom, the other upon the picture frame. It is possible that this pair, or one of them, was hatched out on the picture at Great Bealings House, Suffolk, of which I have written elsewhere. Who can tell? A few days ago they began cleaning, relining and repairing the nest, making all ready for the coming of their second brood. Lady Farren had little silver rings put on the young of the second brood hatched over the portrait in the bedroom at Great Bealings. A bird, with the ring still on came to breed in that same place two years later. The poor Swallows often suffer terribly from storms and unseasonable weather coming after they have left their warm winter quarters. Mr. Poole, of Ealing, told me that being at his angling quarters on the river Kennet, Ham Bridge, near Newbury, on April 25, 1908, at 8.15 a.m., he saw Martins and Swallows hawking flies, most probably the _grannow_, as there had been some previous hatches of this fly noticed. The season earlier had been a warm one and these birds had arrived early. It was snowing hard at the time, and had been doing so for some few hours, and three or four inches of snow lay on the ground. All that day it snowed continuously, ceasing only at about 7 p.m., with a fall nearly two feet deep. The frost was occasionally severe during the day. On the morrow, April 26, it was intensely bright, and even hot in the sun, the snow disappearing very quickly; but, said Mr. Poole, “I saw not a sign of either Swallow or Martin and indeed they were scarce on the Kennet for the rest of the season. I also noted a great scarcity upon the riven Itchen, in Hampshire.” A lady also tells me that near Lynn in Norfolk, during the great cold, the hungry Swallows came down on her garden lawn and picked up the scattered crumbs of bread.