Sir, - Sunday, February 6th being a fine morning, I decided to go walking and bird-watching in St Anne's Park, Dollymount, Dublin. To my amazement I saw a house martin feeding around a holm oak grove. It was three months before its usual time of arrival in April and it had beaten its cousins, the swallows, who are normally the first of the "hirundine" family to arrive, in mid-March. Is this a sign of something?
D. O'Sullivan, C.S.Sp, Kimmage, Dublin.