Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/300

268 friend Mr. H.C. Playne rioted its arrival near Bristol on April 6th, 1894 — and I find one or two very early dates in the records of the Natural History Society of Marlborough College. Gilbert White, in his Fifty-first Letter, makes it clear that he expected Martins to arrive in Hampshire by April 11th. During the last few years it has gradually grown upon me that the Martins do not appear so soon as I should have expected, and I have in consequence brought together my records for the last ten years (unluckily not quite complete) to determine what truth there may be in this. I may say that I arrive at Oxford for the term about the middle of April, and that on arriving I invariably search the favourite places which the Swallows and Martins affect as soon as they reach us. I am not therefore likely to miss them if they are here. Mr. O.V. Aplin has kindly sent me a list of records which go back beyond my own, which he allows me to publish. All his but one are from the neighbourhood of Banbury, and the one exception (1896) is from Nettlebed, in the Chilterns. He was abroad in 1893 and 1895, and for the former year I unfortunately have no record, nor have I been able to obtain one from any ornithological friend. The following table will show our respective observations:—

The results of this table, so far as they go, may perhaps be stated as follows:—1. The irregularity of the movements of this species comes out distinctly, for we have a range of first appearances extending from April 17th to May 9th. In Mr. Murray A. Mathew's 'Birds of Devon' I find a still longer range recorded, for in 1874 he noted the appearance of two Martins on April 2nd, while in 1891 none were seen till May 14th. This is possibly due to a double wave of migration from Africa, for Col. Irby, in his 'Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar,' tells us that Martins cross the Straits both in February and April; and it may be that only a few of the