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