118 1N8ESSORES. HIRUNDINID^. 



PLATE 34. Natural size. 



General Bill yellowish-brown at the base, the tip black. At the 

 tion. np ~ base of the bill are a few black bristles. Irides yellow- 



ish-brown. Behind each eye is a small bare tubercle. 

 Head, neck, breast, and belly verditer-blue, in some 

 parts inclining to verdigris green. Back and scapulars 

 reddish wood-brown. Smaller wing-coverts rich auri- 

 cula-purple, those next to them pale ultra-marine blue. 

 Basal part of quills plum-purple. The tips dusky. 

 Rump purple. Tail consisting of twelve feathers, the 

 outermost (elongated in the male bird) pale ultra-ma- 

 rine blue, tipped with black ; the rest blackish-green. 

 Legs wood-brown. 



FAMILY II. HIRUNDINID^. 



In this typical Family, the fissirostral characters, as might 

 be expected, are found existing in a pre-eminent degree; 

 the gape being very extensive, (the commissure reaching as 

 far as the posterior angle of the eye), while the external or 

 prominent part of the bill is short and weak ; the wings being 

 much produced, narrow, and acuminate, and the tail gene- 

 rally more or less forked, characters indicative of a swift and 

 strong flight. The legs, in accordance with the little use 

 made of them in progressive motion, are always short, and 

 generally weak; but the toes are furnished with sharp and 

 hooked claws, which in some genera are of great strength, 

 enabling them to grasp and adhere to the perpendicular faces 

 of rocks, buildings, hollows of trees, and other places where 

 they habitually roost and breed. They are widely dissemi- 

 nated over the globe, and are met with in almost all climates 

 at certain periods of the year, most of the genera being of 

 migratory habits. They prey upon insects, which they cap- 

 ture upon wing ; some few are also stated to devour berries 

 occasionally, and in such we observe a greater strength and 



