48 C.C. NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



(i) The swallow has a reddish throat and dark rump. 

 The martin has no red on throat and a white rump. 



(2) The swallow has the tail feathers the same length except the 

 two outer ones, which are very much longer than any of the others, 

 giying the appearance of a very long fork. 



The martin's tail is a simple forked tail. 



Look, however, carefully at a martin's tail when the bird is flying, 

 — where is the fork then > It is gone entirely. The tail is spread out 

 and becomes fan-shaped; in fact exactly the same shape as a swallow's, 

 only without the long outer feathers. Now these outer feathers, even 

 at close quarters, when a swallow is darting about are often very 

 difficult to see, and I found that the best thing by which I could 

 distinguish a swallow's tail is the broad white tips to the feathers, 

 which are very plain, even in young swallows. Of course I am 

 speaking of swallows seen close. The white could not be seen 

 unless the bird was fairly near. There is, I have no doubt, a 

 difference in the flight of the swallow, martin, and sand martin, but 

 it would require very many close observations to be able to tell them 

 apart by that alone. The martin's flight is more hovering and less 

 sweeping than that of the swallow. 



There is still much work to be done in the observations of young 

 birds, a part of the study of ornithology which is rather neglected, 

 and which would well repay any one who devoted a year or so to it. 



