THE SWALLOWS 



1701 



after flock streaming away south in the wake of their predecessors, and many small 

 parties followed the main detachment during the day. The upper parts of the sand 

 martin are uniform brown, as is the band on the breast; the lower parts are dull 

 white. The crag martin (C. nipestris} spends the summer months among the 

 mountain ranges of Central and Southern Europe, as a rule frequenting rocks and 

 old ruins, and nesting in inaccessible places in the month of March, the nests being 

 often placed in the roofs of caverns in the rocks. Mr. Scott Wilson writes that he 

 saw the crag martin flying about the perpendicular crags of the Gemmi in June, 

 1885, but observed it more particularly and found it breeding on the first of June, 



SAND MARTIN AND PURPLE MARTIN. 



(One-half natural size. ) 



1886, near Meiringen. In the Eastern Pyrenees the crag martin builds under the 

 eaves of the houses in the centres of the towns, the nests being large structures of 

 mud, quite open at the top, and lined with feathers. The eggs of the crag martin 

 are white in ground color, profusely spotted with pale grayish brown. The general 

 color of the adult bird is a light ashy brown above, the lower parts being creamy 

 buff; and the tail feathers are dark brown, the central and outer pairs being con- 

 spicuously spotted with white. 



Dr. Sharpe divides the swallows into two groups, according to the character- 

 istic of the outer primary; the majority of genera belonging to the smooth- winged 



