GLASS II. AVES: ORDEE 2. PASSERES. 
87 
THE KUBOFliAN HOUSE-MARTIN. THE ESCULEST SWALLOW. (SCB p. 91.) 
THE HIRUNDINIDtE OR SWALLOWS. 
The birds of this pleasing and interesting family have a short, depressed, triangular bill, a wide 
gape furnished with short bristles, wings long and pointed, tail more or less forked, three toes be- 
fore and one behind. They are slender and elegant of form ; their flight is easy, and displays a 
thousand graceful evolutions in the air as they pursue their winged prey, often for hours together, 
sometimes rising to a great elevation, and sometimes skimming along the surface of the land, or 
gliding over the waters, drinking as they pass. Several of the species — which are widely distri- 
buted throughout the world — have a fondness for living in the immediate vicinity of man, even 
in his barn or his house ; the eggs are four to six, and there are usually two broods in a season. 
Genus HIRUNDO : Hirun- 
do. — This includes several spe- 
cies. The Common Swallow 
or Europe, H. rtistica, is six 
and a half inches long ; above 
it is black, with violet reflec- 
tions; the throat reddish-brown ; 
the breast brown ; the belly 
white ; Avhite and buff-colored 
varieties not uncommon; the 
tail deeply forked. It is mi- 
gratory, arriving in Europe in 
April, and departing for Africa 
^: and Asia, where it spends the 
winter, the latter part of Octo- 
ber. It bnilds its saucer-shaped 
nest of pellets of mud, moulded 
with straw, often in the throat 
THE COMMON EUROPEAN SWALLOW. of a chimucy, on some angle of 
