Ground the House 



Probably the main body arrived within the next ten 

 days, followed closely by the House and Sand 

 Martins. Nesting operations rarely begin before 

 May, and towards the end of June the first brood of 

 Martins may be seen hob-nobbing with the young 

 Swallows, while their parents are busy with the 

 second. Towards the end of September or in the 

 first week of October, if the season be fine, they 

 begin to think of departure. Companies, large and 

 small, collect on the telegraph wires or some con- 

 venient roof-top and loiter on for a day or two as if 

 loth to leave us, until suddenly one morning we 

 awake to the fact that they have gone. 



One of the last to arrive and the first to go 

 of summer visitors is the Swift, which, in spite 

 of superficial resemblance to the Swallow tribe 

 really belongs to a totally different order of birds. 

 It is a Picarian not a Passerine bird, but we 

 need not enter into the anatomical differences 

 here, merely remarking that the four toes all point 

 forwards. Its colouring is uniformly blackish 

 brown save for a white chin-patch, and this, com- 

 bined with its long scythe-like wings and extra- 

 ordinary powers of flight, render it almost impossible 

 for any one to mistake it even at a great distance. 



The habits of the Swifts resemble those of the 

 Swallow tribe, for their food consists of insects, 

 taken on the wing, though generally at a greater 

 altitude. Tireless as the Swallow seems to be, it 

 is not so exclusively a bird of the air as the Swift, 

 B 17 



