p^ 



FAIRY MARTIN. Hirundo Ariel. 



hundreds of nests in close proximity to each other, but without the slightest attempt at 

 regularity or order, and with the parts sticking out in all directions. Now and then, the 

 nest of this bird is found within the hollow of some decayed tree. In every case, the nest 

 is built in some place where water is in the near vicinity, but it is a very remarkable fact 

 that it has never been seen within twenty miles of the sea. The Fairy Martin is spread 

 over the whole of Southern Australia, arriving in August, and departing in September. 



THE WIRE-TAILED SWALLOW is chiefly remarkable on account of the peculiarity from 

 whicli it derives its name. 



The external feathers of the tail are singularly elongated, and for the greater part of 

 their length are devoid of web, resembling in some degree the filamentary appendages of 

 the Bird of Paradise. The general colour of this bird is a rich steel-blue, the head being 

 chesnut, and the under portions of the body white, with the exception of a large black 

 patch upon the back of the thigh. The wiry portion of the tail feathers is black, and the 

 same tint runs across the edge of the webbed portions, which in the cerrtre are white like 

 the abdomen. Specimens of this bird in the British Museum have been brought from 

 Madras and Abyssinia. 



THE handsome PURPLE SWALLOW is a native of the United States of America, where 

 it is one of the most familiar, and at the same time one of the most generally beloved 

 of the indigenous birds. 



It instinctively resorts to human habitations, and even finds favour in the eyes of the 

 American Indian, a being who is little given to mercy, and who makes the possession of 

 a head but a theme for self laudation. Yet even the copper-skinned native respects the 

 Purple Martin, and takes care to prepare a convenient resting place for the little bird, by 

 hanging on a neighbouring tree an empty gourd in which a hole has been roughly cut. 

 In this receptacle the Martin makes its inartificial nest, and cheers the heart of its host 

 by its monotonous though sweet-toned song. The more civilized inhabitants of farms 

 provide, for the roosting of this bird by fastening nest-boxes against the wall, and some 

 persons even build regular cotes, of which the sociable birds soon take possession. 



