71 o , The Sparrow-like Birds 



Australian Tree Martin. Of the two Australian species referred to this 

 genus, the Tree Martin (P. nigricans] has habits very different from our Eave 

 Swallows in that it nests in the hollow limbs of trees or on the wall caps under 

 the eaves of sheds and houses, not employing mud in the construction, while 

 the little Fairy Martin (P. ariel) builds the typical bottle-shaped nests of clay, 

 placing them singly or more often in clusters on the face of a cliff, a cavity in 

 a tree, or under eaves of buildings or ledges. 



American Rough -winged Swallows. - Probably belonging here are the 

 Rough-winged Swallows (Stelgidopteryx), of which there are several species 

 of warm temperate and tropical continental America. With many of the char- 

 acters already mentioned for the foregoing forms, they are distinguished by 

 the male having the outermost primary with the barbs of the outer web stiffened, 

 "causing a file-like roughness when the finger is drawn along the edge of the 

 quill from the base toward the tip." The color of the plumage is plain grayish 

 brown above and paler grayish brown beneath, becoming white on the abdomen, 

 some species having the throat cinnamon or buffy. The only North American 

 species is the common Rough-winged Swallow (5. serripennis), which nests 

 as far north as British Columbia, Minnesota, and Connecticut. They are of 

 about the same size and have much the habits and appearance of the Bank 

 Swallow, to be described next, and like this species they nest in holes and crevices, 

 sometimes excavated by the birds themselves in banks, but usually they take 

 up with something already at hand, such as an abandoned Kingfisher's burrow, 

 a crevice in masonry, or, more rarely, chance holes in bridges or buildings. The 

 nest itself is made of grasses, feathers, etc., and the complement of eggs ranges 

 from four to eight; they are immaculate white. 



Bank Swallow. The little Sand Martin, or Bank Swallow (Riparia riparia), 

 has, it is believed, the widest distribution of any land bird, ranging over nearly 

 the entire Northern Hemisphere, occurring in North America in summer as far 

 north as the limit of trees, and in winter throughout Central and^northern South 

 America, while in the Old World it spends the summer in Europe, northern 

 Asia, and China, and the winter in Africa, the Indian peninsula, and the Indo- 

 Burmese countries, and according to Mr. Ridgway, two other supposed species 

 (R. diluta of central Asia and R. shelleyi of northeastern Africa) seem to be 

 only desert forms or subspecies of it, thus further increasing the range. Through- 

 out this vast area its habits and appearance are practically uniform, not having 

 been modified by civilization, which, indeed, it rather avoids, though it has been 

 reported as occasionally excavating its holes in huge piles of sawdust about 

 sawmills. It is a plain little bird about five inches long, with the upper parts 

 grayish brown and the lower parts white, with a band of grayish brown across 

 the chest. It is a highly sociable and gregarious species, and great colonies 

 resembling gigantic beehives are often met with, such as that observed in Alaska 

 by Dr. Dall, who counted over seven hundred nest holes in the face of a single 

 sand bluff. The nests are always placed in excavations made by themselves, 

 usually in the sandy banks of rivers, bluffs along lakes or the sea, or sand and 

 gravel, pits, and generally near the surface of the ground, the birds showing 



