77 



HIRUNDO. SWALLOW. 



Generic Character. 



Rostrum minimum, incur- : 

 vtim, subulatum, basi de- j 

 pressum. 



Rictus capite amplior. 



Pedes shnplices, digitis tri- 

 bus anticis, uno postico. 



Cauda plerisque forficata. 



Beak small, bent downwards, 

 pointed, and depressed at 

 the base. 



Gape extremely wide. 



Feet simple, uith three toes 

 before, and one behind. 



Tail generally forked. 



A HE migration of the Swallow tribe has been a 

 subject that has engaged the attention of natural- 

 ists from the earliest ages, and has given rise to a 

 vast number of hypotheses, some of which are ab- 

 surd in the extreme *. Pliny, and the generality 

 of the ancient naturalists, favoured the idea that 

 they remained (without feathers) in the holes 

 and recesses of rocks and mountains during the 

 winter, and that the vernal sun called them 

 forth from their hiding places. But more modern 

 naturalists, amongst whom the first was Olaus 

 Magnus, Archbishop of Upsal, believed that they 

 were often found in clusters, at the bottom of 

 lakes and rivers, and that they crept down the 



* An anonymous writer on the migrations of birds has as- 

 serted, that Swallows retire to the moon in the winter ! 



