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feathers, especially the secondaries and upper tail-coverts, margined with fulyous; chin washed with 
pale rusty buff, and the sides of the throat slightly tinged with the same colour. 
THE present species has an extremely wide range, being found throughout Europe, Asia, Northern 
Africa, and America, as far south as Brazil. 
In Great Britain it is common during the summer season throughout the country in suitable 
localities, and is found even on the outer islands off the coast of Scotland. Mr. Robert Gray 
(B. of W. of Scotl. p. 209) says that “it is a regular summer visitant to Lewis, Harris, and 
North Uist, breeding in sand-banks of the western side of these islands. It also inhabits South 
Uist and Barra, but I have not seen it on Benbecula, which probably does not furnish suitable 
- banks for a bird of its mining habits.” In Ireland it is a regular and common summer visitant 
wherever there are banks suitable for the purpose of nidification. 
I do not find it recorded from the Feeroes ; but it is a common summer resident in Scandinavia. 
My. R. Collett says that ‘it breeds from Southern Norway up to the Russian frontier, north of 
the Polar Circle, and along the west coast it is one of the commonest species. It breeds up in 
the birch-region in the fells both on the Dovre and in Ronderne.” Ina note to hand just as 
the present article is going to press he tells me it arrives in Norway about the middle of May, 
and leaves again early in September. In the Gudbrandsdal and Osterdal he found them 
breeding in the roofs of houses, which are there frequently made of turf, into which the 
Martins had burrowed, though many other more suitable localities for the purpose of nidifi- 
cation were close at hand. Pastor Sommerfelt says that it is “not common on the Varanger 
fiord, but breeds in several localities, as, for instance, at Seida, on the Tana river, at Nuorgan, 
in Polmak, and at Oxevandet;” and he thinks that of latter years it has increased in numbers. 
Nilsson says that it is numerous throughout Sweden up into the Polar Circle, arriving 
rather later than the common Swallow, about the end of April, and leaving in August or 
early in September. In Finland it occurs in most parts of the country, being met with most 
frequently on the banks of the larger rivers; but I seldom observed it in the southern portions 
of the country. In Russia it is common. Messrs. Alston and Harvie Brown found large 
colonies breeding near Archangel. Meves met with it at Schliisselburg, Novaja Ladoga, Onega, 
Archangel, &c., everywhere common; and Sabanaeff informs me that it is generally distributed 
throughout Central Russia in suitable localities, and, along the Ural range, found at least up to 
58° N. lat., and even higher on the Kama; but on the south-eastern slopes it is rarer. In 
Poland, the Baltic Provinces, and Germany it is common, but, according to Borggreve, it is not 
found high up in the mountains. In Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and France it is, as else- 
where, tolerably widely distributed during the breeding-season, and breeds as far south in France 
as Provence. Professor Barboza du Bocage does not include it in his list of the birds of 
Portugal; but Dr. E. Rey (J. f. O. 1872, p. 143) often saw it at Algarve in that country, as also 
at Rapozeiro, at the foot of the Sierra Figueira. In Spain it is said to be tolerably common, and 
generally distributed during the summer season, but leaves during the winter. Mr. Howard 
Saunders (Ibis, 1871, p. 205) found it nesting in the banks of the Guadalquivir in May; and 
Mr. A. von Homeyer says (J. f. O. 1862, p. 254) that he found a colony of about twenty pairs 
breeding near Alcndie, in the Balearic Isles. In Italy it is numerous in the summer. Mr. A. B. 
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