HIRUNDINID^. 165 



THE MARTIN. 

 Chelidon urrica (Linnaeus). 



The Martin, sometimes called the House-Martin to distinguish it 

 from the Sand-Martin, usually arrives a few days later than the 

 Swallow, and is of general distribution during the summer through- 

 out the British Islands. In the north, however, it is rather local and 

 even of irregular occurrence, while in some parts of the north-west it 

 has become decidedly scarcer of late years. It seldom visits the Outer 

 Hebrides, and only breeds sparingly in the Orkneys and Shetlands. 

 In Ireland it is local, and less common than the Swallow. By the 

 middle of October the bulk of the Martins have left this country, but 

 considerable flocks have been noticed up to the middle of November, 

 and birds — generally young — have been obtained in December. 



The Martin is a rare visitor to Iceland, but in the Faeroes it is not 

 uncommon on the spring migration. In Scandinavia it breeds as far 

 north as about lat. 70°, but in Russia its range in that direction is less 

 extensive ; while eastward our bird is not known beyond the valley of 

 the Ob, its place being taken in Siberia by C. lagopoda, a species 

 with a shorter and squarer tail and entirely white upper tail-coverts. 

 In the Himalayas the representative species, C. cashmiriensis, is 

 smaller, with shorter and less deeply-forked tail ; but our bird is 

 found during the breeding-season in North-western India, Turkestan, 



