Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/42

14 Two pairs of swifts are breeding in St. Philip's church; they arrived the beginning of May. When out late at night entomologising, I often see the swifts going back to their nests, which are several miles off. The common fly-catcher (Butalis grisola) was seen May the 7th, 1841, and on the 8th of May, 1842. My notes of departure in 1841, were—the last chiff-chaffs and warblers were seen September 17th; all the flycatchers left between the 15th and 18th of September; there were a few swallows and martins near the source of the Derwent. On the morning of September 29, there was a complete equinoctial gale; at noon many swallows were flying about, but all hurried southward in the evening.

A friend of mine, well acquainted with birds, told me he saw a single swallow going south on October 9th. It is most probable that nearly all our summer birds go to winter in the north of Africa, some remaining in the south of Spain, for wings of the warblers have been brought from the latter country in the winter, by persons that were not able to skin. On the American continent we find that from an equal range of districts there is a similar flocking to the equator. — Many of the migratory birds visit the same locality year after year: a pair of flycatchers (Butalis grisola) built their nest for eight or ten summers on a leaden water-conductor at the top of our house; another pair fix their nest every year on the branches of our wallfruit trees, and notwithstanding the cats often destroy it, they still persevere. A pair of redstarts in the same manner build in a wall by us. It is well known that martins return to the same nest; ofter over a country inn door, where it is almost impossible to drive them away, I have seen blocks of wood nailed on the spouts as the only alternative. The return of the same individuals is given by my friend Mr. Audubon in his 'Biography of the Birds of America,' ii. 122, in the article Muscicapa fusca: in this instance the female was killed, and the male brought a new mate to the old nest. I cannot from experience prove, but it seems most probable, that there is more certainty of the return of the female to the same place with a new partner, when some accident has befallen the male, since she has more to do with the cares of incubation. I hope some one more competent to write on migration will give their views in future numbers of 'The Zoologist.' — John Heppenstall; Upperthorpe, near Sheffield, June 17, 1842.

The Osprey, (Pandion Haliaëtos). Three specimens, shot near Sheffield, have come under my notice. A fine male in my collection I received alive, but very far spent, it having been kept more than a week in a close attic, where they had vainly endeavoured to feed it