﻿Manners. 



SWALLOW. 585 



Colour of the whole plumage footy black, except the chin, which 

 is white : the wings are very long, meafuring, from tip to tip, no 

 lefs than eighteen inches : the feet very fhort ; and the toes all 

 placed forwards : the tail is forked ; the outer feather exceed- 

 ing the middle ones by an inch, or more : legs and claws 

 blackifh. 



The female is rather lefs; the plumage inclined more to Female, 



brown; and the white on the throat lefs diftincl. 



This is a fummer inhabitant of thefe kingdoms. It comes the Place and 

 lateft, and departs the fooneft, of any of the tribe; not always 

 Haying till the middle of Augufi ■, and often not arriving before 

 the beginning of May. 



Thefe love to build in elevated places, the more fo the better j 

 fuch as fteeples, lofty towers, and fuch-like ; making in the cavi- 

 ties of thefe their neft. Are fuppofed to return to the fame places 

 year after year. Only hatch once in a year. For the mod part 

 lay five white eggs, rather of a longilh form. Their food, flies, 

 moths, and other winged infects : and as they are apt to catch at 

 every thing on the wing, many have caught them by a bait of a 

 Cockchafer tied to a thread, which they have fwallowed as freely 

 a fifti their's. In the IJle of Zant, the boys are faid to get on an 

 elevated place, and merely with a hook baited with a feather, 

 have caught five or fix dozen of thefe birds in a day *. They 

 chiefly fly morning and evening, lying in their holes during the 

 heat of the day ; probably not being able to endure heat any 

 more than cold. 



Befides our ifland, they are kno^Sfi-fo inhabit the whole of the 



• Hifi. des oif. 



Vol. Ik 4 F European 



