102 CLASS AVES. 



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tunnel is adapted, through which the female glides into the 

 interior of the nest. Inside it is furnished with a profusion 

 of the most downy materials. The eggs are four to six in 

 number, white, sprinkled with small brown spots, and the 

 incubation lasts from sixteen to eighteen days. 



This species, in relation to its form, is probably that which 

 some travellers, who have only seen it fly, have taken for our 

 chimney swallow. Its gait, cry, and physiognomy are ex- 

 actly similar. 



The Rufous-fronted Swallow is exactly similar to the 

 preceding in form, but characterized by a red band across the 

 forehead. M. Levaillant only met this species during the 

 rainy monsoon, and never in the breeding season. He 

 therefore thinks it probable that it only passes the winter in 

 the South of Africa, and never nestles there. The only 

 difference he observed between the sexes was, that the 

 female was not quite so large as the mail, nor had the tail so 

 long. 



Many of these swallows were found by this naturalist in a 

 collection of birds made in Senegal. He thinks it probable 

 that their true country is situated near the equinoctial, and 

 that they quit this region to betake themselves southward to 

 . pass the rainy season, after having reared their young ones. 

 The young which they bring with tliem, when they arrive at 

 the Cape, incontestably proves that they nestle elsewhere. 



The Sharp-quilled Swallows have a short, robust, and 

 rounded tarsus ; strong claws ; the thumb articulated more 

 highly in the tarsus than in the preceding species, and the 

 croup is muscular. But they are more particularly distin- 

 guished by thick stalks to the caudal quills, which terminate 

 in a sharp point, furnished with barbs, from which the name 

 Acutipennis has been attached to them. 



These swallows take the place of the martens in America, 

 where the latter birds are not found ; for the birds of this 

 continent, on which this name has been imposed, are true 



