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H 1 R U N D O. 



pest. It is most abundant where the situation is 

 most rich and warm ; and as it is a scavenger, it 

 resorts to those places in greatest numbers which are 

 kept in the worst order. But even where there is 

 the greatest attention paid to cleanliness, the house- 

 fly still makes its appearance ; and thus, the house- 

 rnartin comes along with it and regulates its numbers, 

 by feeding itself and its brood upon the overplus. 

 Many of the other flies which are captured in the 

 upper air by other members of the swallow family, 

 are captured while winging their way for the purpose 

 of depositing their eggs in situations where the grubs 

 would be very injurious to the. vegetable crops ; and 

 it is probable that, in that soft and inirky weather 

 before rain, during which swallows and swifts are so 

 busy in the upper air, some of those small insects, the 

 larvae of which are so annoying to cultivation, take to 

 high flight for the same purposes. It is well-known 

 that, were it not for birds of some description or 

 another, and the greater number of those in our lati- 

 tudes are migrant birds, retiring to other climes in 

 the winter, the vegetable productions of tlie earth 

 would be destroyed in one season. Against these 

 little creatures man has few direct defences within the 

 range of his arts ; and it is on this account that the 

 insect-feeding birds are so very valuable. In the case 

 of the swallow-tribe we cannot decide by actual ob- 

 servation what it is that they capture as they dart 

 along the sky and skim the surface of the pools with 

 so much activity. But their activity, and the fact of 

 their finding their food in situations where no other 

 birds can, are abundant proofs of their use in the eco- 

 nomy of nature. Nor should we forget that it appears 

 to be to man that they are more especially useful ; 

 for with us at least they do not resort to the wild, 

 cold, and mountainous places, but to those which are 

 rich, thickly inhabited, and in a high state of cultiva- 

 tion. There arc many of the more n jrtherly parts of 

 the country where, at a distance varving from five to 

 ten miles from the sea, the surface rises to the height 

 of (bur or five hundred feet, and the climate is exceed- 

 ingly cold and bleak. In these places winged insects 

 ure few, and ihere is not one of the swallow-tribe to 

 l>e seen ; but when the steep is descended, though 

 the horizontal distance may not be above a mile or 

 two, insects appear in swarms, and swallows are 

 regular visitants. So are they in the inland villages, 

 which lie between those coast-hills and the central 

 mountains ; and they are often found upon the 

 latter at heights exceeding the very summits of the 

 province. The general history of these active and 

 interesting birds is, however, a subject upon which 

 volumes might be written. 



The whole of. the race are strictly insectivorous, 

 and never destroy any thing that is useful to man, 

 however much they may contribute to the preserva- 

 tion of many things that are valuable. Still in their 

 way they are a kind of birds of prey, answering to 

 the diurnal action of the accipitrcs, though the prey 

 is different. 



The general characters of the genus are well 

 marked and easily remembered. They are all very 

 thickly formed in the anterior part of their bodies, so 

 that the whole mass is concentrated on the axis of 

 the wings, and they taper off in beautiful curves 

 tosvard the posterior extremity. Their wings are 

 long and pointed, and remarkably compact in their 

 texture, so that they can undergo a great deal of 

 fatigue without injury. Their tails are produced, in 



general very stiff, and in most of the species very 

 much forked. All the extremities of their apparatus 

 of flight are in fact pointed, and they can turn on 

 these points in a very singular manner, flying horizon- 

 tally or on edge, or at any intermediate angle, appa- 

 rently with equal ease. The power of the tail appears 

 to give them as much facility of ascent and descent 

 as they have rapidity in forward flight; and as their 

 prey is much more minute than that of even the 

 smallest of the diurnal accipitres, they are endowed 

 with corresponding capacities for finding it. They 

 beat the air with more rapidity and grace than the 

 birds of prey do the ground under them ; and the 

 smaller ones, which do not fly above the usual range 

 of the short-winged hawks, assail them with great 

 determination when they make their appearance. It 

 is natural to suppose that their sight is very acute. 

 Their feet are very small and feeble as compared 

 with the power of their wings, but they are not walk- 

 ing birds, and rarely if ever feed upon the ground. 

 Some of them have the foot with all the four toes to 

 the front, or rather all so placed that the claws shall 

 press toward the centre of the foot when the joints 

 of the legs are bent. This enables them to hold on 

 upon upright surfaces, to which no other birds can 

 adhere ; and they even, as occasion renders it neces- 

 sary, bring the tail and the wings to act in aid of 

 this. Their bills are flattened, very broad at the 

 base, generally hooked at the top of the upper man- 

 dible, and turned up at that of the lower, but they 

 are without any notch, and the sides rarely close 

 for the whole of their length. For the capture of 

 insects they are very efficient bills, but. they are not 

 at all adapted for any purpose of hostility against 

 larger animals. Their gape is remarkably wide ; and 

 as they are whisking about on the wing catching flies 

 one can often hear the snap of their bills. 



They are sometimes arranged into two subdivisions 

 of swallows and swifts, of which the latter are the 

 more lofty flyers, and probably the more characteristic 

 birds ; but we shall not go into the minutiaj of the 

 systematic arrangement. We shall first notice those 

 that are to seen in the British islands, and then 

 name one or two of the more remarkable of the 

 foreign ones. 



THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW (H. rustico}. This is 

 the only species which, with us, is called a swallow, 

 the others being either martins or swifts. It is un- 

 derstood to hatch and breed in Africa, probably to 

 the south of the equator, in our winter, which of 

 course answers to the spring in that country, and to 

 perform its great annual rnoult about the month of 

 February. Soon after this it beerins to migrate north- 

 ward, and arrives in England about the end of April, 

 at which time it is in fine plumage. The birds 

 speedily disperse themselves, reaching the most 

 northerly parts of the country by the end of the 

 month. They form their nests in chimneys, in out- 

 houses, ruins, and the faces of rocks, but not at any 

 very great elevation. They build with mud, and 

 line the nest with feathers, but do not cover it with 

 a dome. The eggs, in one hatch, are not more than 

 four in number, but in the warmer parts of the country 

 they breed twice, the one hatch being able to take 

 to the wing in June, and the other early in Septem- 

 ber. In more northerly places they breed only once, 

 and the brood are fully fledged in July, or the begin- 

 ning of August. They generally take their departure 

 about the end of September, but the time varies a 



