282 SWALLOWS AND MARTINS 



HOUSE-MARTIN [Hirundo urbica (Linnaeus). Chelidon urbica 

 (Linnaeus). Eaves- or window-swallow, martlet, bungy-martin. French, 

 hirondelle de fenetre ; German, Hausschwalbe or Mehlschwalbe ; Italian, 

 balestruccio]. 



1. Description. The martin is distinguished by the dark blue coloration 

 of the upper parts, relieved by a large white patch on the rump. (PL 72.) 

 Length 5*3 in. [134 mm.]. With the exception of the white rump, the upper parts 

 are of a dark steel-blue with a metallic lustre, less conspicuous on the upper tail- 

 coverts. The wings and tail are of a sooty brown hue with a tinge of dark metallic 

 green. The tail is deeply forked, but the outermost feathers project only slightly 

 beyond the tips of the closed wings. The under parts are pure white, and the legs 

 and toes are covered with short white feathers. The female is like the male. The 

 juvenile plumage is of a sooty brown above, but with a slight metallic steel-blue 

 sheen in the back. The inner secondaries have broad tips of white, and the inner 

 primaries a narrow edge of white towards the tips. [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. In the breeding season the house-martin is found through- 

 out Europe up to about lat. 70 N. in Scandinavia, and rather less in N. Russia, 

 while eastward it ranges to the Yenesei and Kuen-Lun. In North-west Africa, 

 Central and Eastern Asia, it is replaced by allied races. In the British Isles it is 

 tolerably general in distribution, but is more local than the swallow, and is decidedly 

 scarce in North Scotland, where it is said to be decreasing in numbers. It has 

 bred occasionally in the Orkneys and Shetlands, and is common on some of the 

 Inner Hebrides, but absent from others, and has only once occurred as a straggler 

 to the Outer Hebrides. In Ireland, though fairly general, it is more locally dis- 

 tributed than the swallow. On migration, the main body appears to move south 

 by the Nile valley, although some pass along the West African coast and the 

 Canaries. The winter quarters are in Central and South-eastern Africa, a few 

 reaching Mashonaland, the Transvaal, and Upper Natal. The North Asiatic birds 

 winter in N.W. India. The East Asiatic allied sub-species winter in India, South 

 China, and Burmah. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor and a bird of passage. The move- 

 ments of the summer immigrants are very similar to the corresponding migra- 

 tions of the swallow, already discussed in detail ; but local writers are all agreed 

 in stating that the martin is, on an average, a few days behind the swallow 

 in its appearance in the various districts. And it is even more marked in the 



