HIRUNDINID. 289 
upper surface of the body, wings and tail nearly 
uniform hair-brown; chin, throat, breast and belly 
white; a band across the upper part of the breast, 
the thighs, vent and under tail-coverts hair-brown ; 
feathers on the legs brown; toes orange-brown ; 
claws dark brown.” 
The eggs are white, and elongated, like those of 
the Common Swift. 
This is the last of the Hirundinide I can claim 
for Somersetshire. Either collectively or individu- 
ally no one has a word to say against any of the 
family: they eat neither fruit, grain nor buds, but 
do an unlimited amount of good by the destruction 
of flies and gnats, in search of which they are most 
indefatigable. Though not liable to attacks from 
man on the supposition that they do him mischief, 
I am sorry to say shooting these birds is considered 
an amusement, not only by school-boys who manage 
to borrow a gun on a holiday, but by grown-up men. 
They are extremely susceptible of changes in the 
weather, and a succession of cold, wet, windy weather 
kills many of them. The Martins seem to be the 
most susceptible; for instance, after some cold 
rough weather in the middle of August, this year 
(1868), I picked up seven Martins and one Swallow 
dead: the gizzards of all those I examined were 
perfectly empty, 
