



CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 435 



This species is four inches and a half in length, and twelve 

 inches in extent! altogether of a deep sooty brown, except the 

 chin and line over the eye, which are of a dull white; the lores, 

 as in all the rest, are black; bill extremely short, hard and black, 

 nostrils placed in a slightly elevated membrane; legs covered 

 with a loose purplish skin; thighs naked and of the same tint; 

 feet extremely muscular; the three fore toes nearly of a length; 

 claws very sharp; the wing when closed extends an inch and a 

 half beyond the tip of the tail, which is rounded, and consists 

 of ten feathers scarcely longer than their coverts; their shafts 

 extend beyond the vanes, are sharp pointed, strong, and very 

 elastic, and of a deep black colour; the shafts of the wing quills 

 are also remarkably strong; eye black, surrounded by a bare 

 blackish skin or orbit. 



The female can scarcely be distinguished from the male by 

 her plumage. 



