CYPSEL1DAE—SWIFTS. 145
in 1835, just after their first appearance, there occurred so remarkably cold a day
that they clustered together in masses like swarming bees. " A large cluster
[was] seen hanging to the water-spout of Harwich Church. Some boys were
able, with poles, to knock them down, and many were caught." Mr. Hope ob-
serves that " When they are seen flying over the mouth of Harwich Harbour the
approach of heavy weather is looked for."
White-bellied Swift : Cypselus melba.
A rare and accidental straggler to Britain which has once, or per-
haps twice, been met with in Essex.
Yarrell says (14. ii. 240) that the fourth British specimen he knew of (really
the sixth) " was picked up dead near Saffron Walden, in Essex, in July, 1838, as
communicated to me by Joseph Clarke, Esq." (also Macgillivray, Hist. British
Birds, iii. p. 613 & 38. 126). In the last edition, Prof. Newton states on Mr.
Clarke's authority (37. ii. 373) that it was picked up dead near Hinxton, which
is in Cambridgeshire, just beyond the Essex boundary. Another Essex record is
by Dr. Bree, who says that on June 8th, 1871, Col. Delme Radcliffe thrice saw
this bird on the wing near Colchester (29. June 17), but the specimen was not
obtained (38. 126). Frederick Holme, writing to Mr. E. II. Rodd (probably in
1833) says (23. 5034) :—
" The great White-bellied Swift (Cypselus alpinus) has been shot three or four
times in Ireland within a few years, and once in England, at Attleborough, in
Norfolk, in September, 1831 ; [ think, but am not sure, that a second instance
has occurred near Romford, in Essex."
Needle-tailed Swift: Acanthyllis caudacuta.
An exceedingly rare and accidental straggler, which has only been
met with twice in Britain, but which has nevertheless a perfectly
good claim to be considered a British bird, notwithstanding its rejec-
tion by Prof. Newton (37. ii. 371), and the fact that it has not been
met with elsewhere in Europe. It would be almost impossible to
import such a bird alive.
The first British specimen was shot near Colchester. It was recorded (23.
1492) by Ed. Newman in the Zoologist, after having been examined and identified
by Messrs. Yarrell, Ed. Doubleday, W. R. Fisher, and himself. Newman quotes
the following information, supplied to him by the late Mr. Thos. Catchpool of
Colchester, to whom the specimen belonged :
" It was shot about 9 p.m. on the 8th of this month [July, 1846] by a farmer's
son, named Peter Coveney, in the parish of Great Horkesley, about four miles
from Colchester. He saw it first on the evening of the 6th. He tells me it occa-
sionally flew to a great height, [and] was principally engaged in hawking for flies
over a small wood and neighbouring trees. Being only wounded, it cried very
much as it fell, and when he took it up, clung so tightly to some clover—it was
in a clover-lay—as to draw some stalks from the ground."
The specimen is now in the possession of Mr. Catchpool's son, Mr. Thos. K..
Catchpool, of Leicester.*
* The second occurrence of this bird in Britain was in 1879, when Mr. G. B. Corbin (40. iv.
81) obtained one near Ringwood, Hants, on July 26th or 27th, after having for several days seen
it flying over the Avon in company with another. Dr. Bree refers to another possible British