Abstract
A FEW minutes before six o'clock in the afternoon of March 26, my brother, Sir Edward Newton, saw, from the cliff near the high lighthouse at Lowestoft, what, at the first glance, looked like a Swallow, flying over the trees in the garden of the house known to many as that occupied more than thirty years ago by the late Dr. Whewell. As the bird turned and gave us a better view of it, we perceived it to be a Swift. Crossing the foot-bridge and getting to the edge of the Park overlooking the garden, we watched it pass backwards and forwards for about a couple of minutes, when it flew away to the northward, and, though we waited for some little while, it did not reappear. I may add that we were favourably placed as regards light, the sun being behind us. I do not recollect any record of the occurrence of the Swift in England so early as this by some weeks, and it would be interesting to know if the bird should have been observed elsewhere.
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NEWTON, A. Early Arrival of the Swift. Nature 55, 508 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/055508a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/055508a0
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