Our Summer Migrants: An Account of the Migratory Birds Which Pass the Summer in the British Islands.Harting, James Edmund
Science
Our Summer Migrants: An Account of the Migratory Birds Which Pass the Summer in the British Islands.
Harting, James Edmund
Birds -- Great Britain
threshed, or only attracted by the warmth from the engine, I cannot say.
It flew very weakly, and was not long seen.”
On the 2nd of November, with the temperature at 45·5°, and the wind W.,
the species was still in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield, and on the
13th November, during cold weather, two were seen on the beach at
Exmouth. I may here remark that but little attention is paid to the time
of departure of a species compared to that which is given to the date of
its arrival.
The Martin was observed to come later and go earlier than the Swallow,
the earliest and latest dates being respectively April 10 at
Marlborough, and November 7 at Leiston, Suffolk. And in the case of this
bird the movement northwards might be traced by the dates, as Wiltshire,
April 10; Worcester, April 11; Yorkshire, April 11 and 13 (the weather
fine, with temperature 53°, and wind W.); Derbyshire, April 15. Further
to the westward, viz., at Llandderfel, in Merionethshire, its appearance
was not noticed until the 13th of May, when the temperature stood at
48°, and the wind N.W. Strange to say, it was not observed in 1872 by
any correspondent in Scotland and Ireland.
The Sandmartin is always amongst the first comers to arrive, and was
seen in three different counties during the last week of March, viz., in
Sussex, Wilts, and Worcester, the weather dull, with the wind blowing
from the westward. Its stay in this country is never so prolonged as
that of the Swallow, or even the Martin. Large flights are observed
preparing to migrate at the end of August and beginning of September,
and at the end of the latter month all have gone southward again for the
winter. In 1872, however, the species was seen exceptionally as late as
October 7.
The Swift is rarely seen before the first week of May or after the first
week of August, and of thirty independent observations upon this bird,
three only refer to its appearance during the last days of April,
four-and-twenty record its arrival between the 1st and 17th of May, and
three only relate to its disappearance—from Garvoch, Perthshire, on July
29, from Leicester on August 2, and from Exeter on August 12. It was
first seen upon the Devonshire coast at Plymouth and Torquay, and at the
former place was particularly numerous. It may be worth noting that a
male Swift shot at Cromer by Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., on June 15, was
found to have the under parts denuded of feathers, which would indicate
that the males take their turn at incubation.
The Swallows and Swifts are thus brought together, out of the order of
the above list, to admit of a more easy comparison of the dates of
arrival and departure. We will now follow the order above indicated,
commenting only on such facts as appear noteworthy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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