A SWIFT-WINGED TRIBE. m 



ney swift for a swallow, althougli it is often 

 called the chimney swallow. The fact is, odd 

 as it may seem, scientific men have put the 

 swifts and swallows not only in different fami- 

 lies, but even in different orders, so that the 

 former belong to the same class as the night- 

 hawks, whip-poor-wills, and humming birds, 

 while the latter are classed with the perching 

 birds, even though they fly more than they 

 perch. However, the purple or house martin, 

 so well known about our country homes and in 

 many of our cities, belongs not only to the same 

 order but also to the same family as the swal- 

 lows. They — the martins — are just as closely 

 related to the barn swallow and the cliff swal- 

 low as those two birds are related to each other. 

 You know the cliff swallows, do you ? But 

 perhaps you do not know that the cliff sw^allow 

 and the eave swallow are one species. Before 

 man comes into a country where they dwell, 

 they build wholly upon the walls of cliffs, in 

 the small holes or beneath the overhanging 

 shelves ; but w^hen barns are put up, they seem 

 to think that the covered space beneath the 

 eaves is a still better site, and so you have often 

 seen these places lined Avith a solid row of 

 adobe cottages. Perhaps you have watched the 

 birds while engaged in house building. They 



