304 Hirundinidce. 



wards, just as they do here when they leave us for the South.* 

 Some few stragglers, however, remain in Northern Africa, 

 possibly weakly birds which are incapable of a prolonged flight. 



11G. MARTIN (Hirundo urbiccC). 



This species is even more familiar to us than the last, for 

 whereas that is comparatively a denizen of the country (rustica) . 

 this is an inhabitant of the town (urbica), and it selects the eaves 

 of our houses and the corners of our windows as fitting situations 

 for its clay-built nest ; hence the names by which it is so often 

 designated of ' Window Swallow/ ' Hirondelle de fen&re,' ' Haus- 

 schwalbe.' It may be at once distinguished from the last by 

 the pure white of all its under parts, and the shorter forked tail, 

 as well as by its smaller size and more compact shape ; it has also 

 a conspicuous patch of white on the back, just above the tail, 

 which stands out in marked contrast with the dark purple hue of 

 all its upper plumage : its legs and feet, too, are feathered to the 

 toes, in which respect it differs from its congeners ; it hunts on the 

 wing, wheels through the air, flocks before migration, and otherwise 

 comports itself like the preceding, but it does not arrive in this 

 country till a week or two later, probably owing to its lesser 

 powers of wing, and consequently inferior speed. The Martin 

 has generally two broods in the summer, but so strong is its 

 instinct to join in the general migration when the fitting period 

 arrives, that it often leaves its young, if hatched late in the year, 

 to perish in the nest, rather than endanger its own safety by delay- 

 ing its departure after the great body of its species has gone ; and 

 this apparently unnatural proceeding is not confined to one or two 

 isolated cases, but is found to be more or less practised every year, 

 and in some seasons to a very great extent. Lloyd in his 

 " Scandinavian Adventures' (vol. ii., p. 353) says that in Lapland 

 half the Martins' nests of the preceding year which he examined, 

 contained the remains of half-grown and abandoned young. The 

 .same author also observes, ' Though in England we set little value 



* J. H. Gurney in Ibis for 18G3, p. 321. 



