86 



British Birds. 



THE SWALLOWS. 



Family 



HIRUNDINID.^. 



while the throat and chest are yellowish-buff. It is a bird of Eastern Europe, 

 nesting in the Baltic Provinces and in Russia, and migrating to North-western India 

 and South-eastern Europe. It has, however, been obtained on migration in many 

 parts of Central Europe, and has been captured in Great Britain on some half 

 dozen occasions. The nest is placed in the hole of a tree, and is made of moss, 

 lined with hair and tine grass. The eggs are from five to seven in number, and 

 resemble those of the Robin or Common Flycatcher, but are less strongl_v marked. 



In habits the species resembles M. 

 grisola, but it also has many of the 

 ways of a Tit, and the note resembles 

 the ' pink ' of the Chaffinch, though it is 

 more subdued and uttered more quickly. 



Because of 

 their rapid flight 

 and general re- 

 semblance, the 

 Swallows and Swifts were formerly 

 classed together, and the wide-gaping 

 mouths of these aerial insect-hunters 

 makes them apparently near akin. 

 Now, however, we know from their 

 anatomy and osteology that the 

 two forms are widely separate, the 

 Swallows being Passerine Birds, highly 

 modified Flycatchers in fact, while the 

 Swifts are Picarian and are the allies, 

 somewhat distant perhaps, of the Goat- 

 suckers and the Humming-Birds. 

 Nevertheless the Swallows, Passerine 

 though they be, are decidedly aberrant, 

 and not only differ from Fl3xatchers in 

 having nine visible primaries instead of 

 ten, but they differ from all other 

 Perching Birds in having the spinal feather-tract not continuous from the head to 

 the back, but forked. They are perfecth- cosmopolitan in their range, and extend 

 even be}'ond the Arctic Circle in summer. 



The distinguising character of the House-Martins, which 

 are entirely birds of the Old World, is the feathering of the 

 feef. Our British species, which is common everj'where in 

 summer, is easily distinguished on the wing b}- the broad 

 white band which is conspicuous across the lower back, as the bird flies. The rest 



The House-Martin. 

 The Swallow. 



THE 



HOUSE-MARTIN. 

 [Chclidon urbica.) 



