HIRUNDINIDA. 165 
THE MARTIN. 
CHEL{fpon UrRBica (Linneus). 
The Martin, sometimes called the House-Martin to distinguish it 
from the Sand-Martin, usually arrives a few days later than the 
Swallow, and is of general distribution during the summer through- 
out the British Islands. In the north, however, it is rather local and 
even of irregular occurrence, while in some parts of the north-west it 
has become decidedly scarcer of late years. It seldom visits the Outer 
Hebrides, and only breeds sparingly in the Orkneys and Shetlands. 
In Ireland it is local, and less common than the Swallow. By the 
middle of October the bulk of the Martins have left this country, but 
considerable flocks have been noticed up to the middle of November, 
and birds—generally young—have been obtained in December. 
The Martin is a rare visitor to Iceland, but in the Feeroes it is not 
uncommon on the spring migration. In Scandinavia it breeds as far 
north as about lat. 70°, but in Russia its range in that direction is less 
extensive ; while eastward our bird is not known beyond the valley of 
the Ob, its place being taken in Siberia by C. dagopoda, a species 
with a shorter and squarer tail and entirely white upper tail-coverts. 
In the Himalayas the representative species, C. cashmiriensis, is 
smaller, with shorter and less deeply-forked tail; but our bird is 
found during the breeding-season in North-western India, Turkestan, 
