7 SEPTEMBER 1956, Page 30

Country Life

BY IAN NIALL

IT is possible to claim to have heard the first cuckoo and get credit for it in the columns of a newspaper, if nowhere else, but few people ever remark that they have seen or heard the last swift or swallow. The departure of birds may be roughly predictable by reference to ornithologists' records, but unless one keeps a diary and makes day-to-day notes, one only realises that the cuckoo has dis- appeared, that first the swifts, and then the swallows, are no longer about, some time after their actual departure. A man in one place may see a swift after the last one has gone from a neighbouring district, but the departure of migrants is like the running of salmon in spring or autumn.