Section II. OSCINES LATIROSTRES. 
Family HIRUNDINIDZ. 
Genus HIRUNDO. 
Hirundo, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 343 (1766). 
Cecropis apud Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 971. 
Lillia apud Boie, J. f. Orn. 1858, p. 564. 
Tue genus Hirundo is very widely distributed, being represented in all the regions and sub- 
regions into which the globe has been divided. Three species only are met with in the Western 
Palearctic Region, the range of these birds being given under the separate articles. The 
Swallows are with us, in Europe, only summer residents, leaving at the approach of the cold 
weather, when insects become scarce ; for they feed exclusively on insects of various kinds, which 
they capture on the wing. They are extremely swift and active in flight, but, on the other 
hand, have the feet and legs but indifferently developed, and are therefore unable to walk on the 
ground, and, comparatively speaking, perch but little, being most frequently seen flying. 
Their ordinary note is a twitter, which is sometimes modulated into a sort of song. ‘They 
build nests of mud, which are placed against the face of a wall, tree, or rock, these nests being 
- carefully lined with feathers; and they deposit several white eggs, either unspotted or else 
marked with dark-red specks and spots. 
Hirundo rustica, the type of the genus, has the bill very short, broad at the base, triangular 
in form, notched at the tip; nostrils basal, small, linear oblong; gape with a few very slight 
bristles; wings very long, pointed, the first quill longest; tail very deeply forked, the lateral 
feathers much elongated; legs and feet very feeble, bare, the tarsus covered with one plate and 
three inferior scutelle ; claws rather long, moderately curved, laterally grooved, acute. 
Progne purpurea (L.), the type of the genus Progne, is said to have been obtained in Great 
Britain; but, there being considerable doubt as to the authenticity of the recorded occurrences, 
I have deemed it advisable to exclude it, especially as Progne is essentially a Nearctic and 
Neotropical genus. 
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