r.LASS IT. AVES: ORDER 2. PASSERES. 



87 



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TUB ESCULENT s^VALLO^v. — (Sec p. 01.) 



THE HIRUNDINID^ OR SWALLOWS. 



The birds of this pleasing and interesting iamily liavc a short, depressed, triangular bill, a wide 

 gape furnished with short bristles, wings long and pointed, tail more or less forked, three toes be- 

 fore and one behind. They are slender and elegant of form ; their flight is eas}^, and displays a 

 thousand graceful evolutions in the air as they pursue their winged prey, often for hours together, 

 sometimes rising to a great elevation, and sometimes skimming along the surface of the land, or 

 gliding over the waters, drinking as they pass. Several of the species — which are widely distri- 

 buted throughout the world — have a fondness for living in the immediate vicinity of man, even 

 in his barn or his house; the eggs are four to six, and there are usually two broods in a season. 



Genus HIRUNDO: Hmni- 

 dn. — This includes several spe- 

 cies. The. Common Swallow 

 OF Europe, H. rustica, is six 

 and a half inches long; above 

 it is black, with violet reflec- 

 tions ; the throat reddish-brown ; 

 the breast brown; the belly 

 white ; white and buft-colored 

 ^r'^'^^^ z varieties not uncommon; the 

 ^^^^ tail deeply forked. It is mi- 

 gratory, arriving in Europe in 

 ^1 April, and departing for Africa 

 and Asia, where it spends the 

 P winter, the latter part of Octo- 

 ber. It builds its saucer-shaped 

 nest of pellets of mud, moulded 

 with straw, often in the throat 

 THE COMMON EUEOPEAN SWALLOW. of A cliimney, on some angle of 



