THE SWALLOWS AND SWIFTS. 37 



with the points of them, but they are always extended 

 and evenly curved from tip to tip, like a bow, 

 the slim body of the bird being the arrow. I have 

 dwelt on this at some length because it is by far the 

 plainest outward difference between a Swift and 

 a Swallow. 



I reckon that two Swifts and at least four Swallows 

 may be included among the Common Birds of 

 Bombay (Hiriindo rustled). First comes our own 

 familiar English Swallow, which spends the winter 

 with us and the summer with our families ; at least, it 

 is pleasant to fancy so, though I am afraid that the line 

 of migration does not lie exactly from England to 

 India However that may be, passengers on their way 

 home in the month of May are often joined in the Red 

 Sea, or the Mediterranean, by a Swallow travelling 

 the same way, which spends a night perhaps in the 

 rigging, then tires of such sluggish progress and goes 

 on alone. It returns to India in September or October, 

 and is tolerably common in Bombay all the cold sea- 

 son. I need not describe it. 



Another purely Indian species, sufficiently like the 

 English bird to be mistaken for it by a careless 

 observer, is the Wire-tail Swallow (Hirundo filifera), 

 which is also found in Bombay and loves to course 

 up and down wet, grassy ditches. It is a splendid 

 bird. The upper parts are dark, glossy, "steel blue," 

 gleaming in the sun, the top of the head is rich, 

 rusty red, and the under-parts are as white as a shirt 

 front fresh from the dhobie I mean from a laundry. 

 But its most distinctive mark is the tail, which is not 

 long and forked, like the tail of the English Swallow, 

 but short and almost square, with the outermost 



