SWALLOWS. 35 



wings and tails are very long, by means of which 

 they excel in sudden evolutions ; and they can 

 mount instantaneously from a level flight, like a 

 sky-rocket. . . When flushed in sunshine, they 

 drop again at once, so as to be in danger of being 

 caught by spaniels, and look round them with 

 astonishment ; hence a notion prevails that they 

 are foolish birds."* 



Like many other birds, the female Nightjar, if 

 suddenly surprised by an intruder, when she has 

 young, will feign helpless lameness, tumbling 

 along in an odd manner, to lure away the stranger 

 from the centre of her anxious cares, by the hope 

 of capturing her. 



FAMILY II. 



(Swallows.) 



In the smallness of the beak, and the great 

 width of the gape, the Swallows resemble the 

 Nightjars,. -as they do also in the weakness and 

 minuteness of their feet. They are birds, how- 

 ever, of far more powerful wing, and though they 

 too pursue insects, which are captured and de- 

 voured during flight, yet as their season of activity 

 is wholly confined to daylight, their plumage has 

 neither the lax softness, nor the mottled style of 

 coloration common to nocturnal birds. On the 

 contrary, the plumage of the Swallows is always 

 close and smooth, and very often burnished with a 

 metallic gloss ; while its prevailing colours are 

 black (more or less changing into blue or green) 



* Gleanings in Nat. Hist. 295. 



