86 
British Birds. 
while the throat and chest are yellowish-buff. 
nesting in the Baltic Provinces and in Russia, and migratin 
their rapid flight 
and general re- 
It is a bird of Eastern Europe, 
to North-western India 
and South-eastern Europe. It has, however, been obtained on migration in many 
parts of Central Europe, and has been captured in Great Britain on some half 
dozen occasions. The nest is placed in the hole of a tree, and is made of moss, 
lined with hair and fine grass. The eggs are from five to seven in number, and 
resemble those of the Robin or Common Flycatcher, but are less strongly marked. 
In habits the species resembles M. 
grisola, hut it also has many of the 
*. .. * ways of a Tit, and the note resembles 
v the ‘ pink ’ of the Chaffinch, though it is 
more subdued and uttered more quickly; 
THE SWALLOWS. 
-'1 Swallows and Swifts were formerly 
classed together, and the wide-gaping 
^ mouths of these aerial insect-hunters 
makes them apparently near akin. 
Now, however, we know from their 
anatomy and osteology that the 
T two forms are widely separate, the 
Swallows being Passerine Birds, highly 
modified Flycatchers in fact, while the 
^ Nk Swifts are Picarian and are the allies, 
somewhat distant perhaps, of the Goat- 
| suckers and the Humming-Birds. 
\ \ Nevertheless the Swallows, Passerine 
though they be, are decidedly aberrant, 
and not only differ from Flycatchers in 
having nine visible primaries instead of 
ten, but they differ from all other 
Perching Birds in having the spinal feather-tract not continuous from the head to 
the back, but forked. They are perfectly cosmopolitan in their range, and extend 
even beyond the Arctic Circle in summer. 
The distinguising character of the House-Martins, which 
are entirely birds of the Old World, is the feathering of the 
feet. Our British species, which is common everywhere in 
summer, is easily distinguished on the wing by the broad 
white band which is conspicuous across the lower back, as the bird flies. The rest 
The House-Martin. 
The Swallow. 
THE 
HOUSE-MARTIN. 
{Chelidon urbica.) 
