1696 THE PERCHING BIRDS 



short duration. It commences to build in September, often placing its beautiful 

 cup- shaped nest upon some branch overhanging the water. Sometimes it nests 

 upon the upper side of a fallen branch without the slightest shelter from the sun 

 and rain, and at an elevation of only three or four feet from the ground. The nest 

 consists of dried grasses, strips of bark, and roots, all firmly matted together and 

 covered over with cobwebs, so that the entire nest looks like an excrescence of the 

 wood. It is lined with fine grass, roots, or feathers. The eggs are dull greenish 

 white, blotched and spotted with blackish and chestnut brown. The old birds are 

 very tame at the nest, and will even perch upon it while the eggs are being 

 removed, uttering a peculiar cry. The adult male has the upper parts black; the 

 great wing coverts are brown, as are the primaries; the tail is black, as are the sides 

 of the face, throat, and sides of the breast; and the remainder of the lower surface 

 is white. 



THE SWALLOWS 

 Family HlRUNDINID^ 



Possessing a short and wide bill, deeply cleft, with the gape very wide, and the 

 mouth opening to about the line of the eye, the swallows have the wings much 

 elongated and comparatively narrow, consisting of only nine primaries, of which 

 the two outer ones are about equal in length, although the inner ones decrease, 

 while the secondaries are very short. The feet are small and weak, and very 

 imperfectly adapted for progression. The tail consists of twelve feathers and is 

 generally forked. As a family the swallows are cosmopolitan, some species enter- 

 ing the Arctic Circle, and the common swallow having strayed to Spitzbergen and 

 Novaia Zemlia. 



The true swallows {Hirundo) have a short depressed bill; their 



wings and tail are very long, and the outer tail feathers of the adult 



enormously elongated. The plumage is of a purplish blue above, correlated with a 



more or less perfect zone on the breast. The swallows construct their nests of fine 



clay, carefully welded into a compact mass, and lined with feathers. 



Africa is the home of many remarkable swallows, and it is on that continent 

 that the members of the genus seem to reach their largest dimensions, the great 

 African mosque swallow {H. senegalensis} measuring upward of nine inches in 

 length, and Monteiro's swallow (//". monteiri) being nearly as large. The elonga- 

 tion of the outer tail feathers is most marked in the wire-tailed swallow (//! smithi) , 

 which have their shafts produced as much as seven inches. This species inhabits 

 India and some parts of Africa. Sclater's swallow is a lovely green and white bird 

 lately discovered in San Domingo. 



. The migrations of the chimney or house swallow (//. rusticcC) and 



Swallow * ts a ^ es h ave l n g excited the interest of mankind, and we confess 



to sharing in the sentiment which welcomes the return of the swallows 



to their home in the rafters of the old barn, or the cornice of their favorite porch. 



