260 THE GOAT-SUCKER. 



descend to the dull earth, which they would not touch 

 but from necessity." 



TABLE XII. (See page 14.) 

 ORDER 2. PASSERINE. TRIBE 6. PLANIROSTRES. 



Tins tribe contains but three genera, two of which, 

 namely, the Swift and the 

 Swallow, are by common 

 observers considered as the 

 same, though there is a re- 

 markable difference in the 

 position of their claws: the 

 third is that of the Goat- 

 suckers, whose enormously 

 wide, gaping mouths, and short, 

 Skull of a Goat-sucker, flat, softish beaks, at once 

 distinguish them from other species. 



As we are not writing a regular book upon the natu- 

 ral history of birds, but confining ourselves chiefly to 

 anecdotes connected with their habits, we shall not 

 pretend to enter into the many details, which it might 

 be otherwise necessary to mention, and shall therefore 

 merely remind our readers that Swallows are the most 

 conspicuous of our summer birds, that with their first 

 appearance we are accustomed to associate the departure 

 of Winter, and the forthcoming of Summer. 



We have four sorts, a little brownish bird, called the 

 Sand-Martin (Hirundo riparid), which leads the way, 

 and if looked for about the first week in April, may be 

 seen hurrying over the surface of large sheets of water 

 or rivers, near to which are banks of sandy soil, in which 

 they burrow and build their nests; the Chimney- Swallow 

 (Hirundo rustica), with his red patch upon his throat, 

 and the Martin (Hirundo urbica) follow nearly together; 

 the large screaming Swallow or Swift (Hirundo apus) 

 being the last to come and the first to go. 



