XXIII. Of the house-swallow, swift, and sand-martin. By the Rev. Gilbert White, in three letters to the Hon. Daines Barrington, F. R. S

Abstract

LETTER I. OF THE HOUSE-SWALLOW. Dear Sir, The house-swallow, or chimney-swallow, is undoubtedly the first comer of all the British hirundines ; and appears in general on or about the 13th of April, as I have remarked from may years observation. Not but now and then a straggler is seen much earlier; and in particular, when I was a boy, I observed a swallow, for a whole day together, on a sunny warm Shrove-tuesday, which day could not fall out later than the middle of March, and often happens early in February. It is worth remarking, that these birds are seen first about lakes and mill-ponds: and it is also very particular, that if these early visitors happen to find frost and snow, as was the case in the two dreadful springs of 1770 and 1771, they immediately withdraw for a time.