18 JUNE 1921, Page 14

[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—With reference to

correspondence as to the lamentable paucity of swallows this year, may I •raise another point which I have noticed in South Worcestershire in the last two years? Ordinarily, the swallow arrived any time after the middle of .April, and -have been followed soon by house martins and sand martins;' the swifts, who are of a quite different order as birds, and are more closely allied to goatsuckers and woodpeckers than to swallows, have usually come seven to ten days after the martins. But in 1920 and 1921 I saw swifts almost as soon as swallows, and before I caught sight of either of the martins. Is there any explanation of this?—I am, Sir, &c., F. R. LAWSON.

Fladbury Rectory, Pershore.