12 
BEAUTIFUL BIRDS. 
very broad at the base and much depressed. The upper 
mandible is generally bent at the tip, and carinated. 
Grape extending as far back as the posterior angle of 
the eye. The bill itself is small and weak, and totally 
incapable of acting as an instrument of defence against 
an enemy. 
Many of the sjiecies, it is almost needless to men- 
tion, form the receptacle for their eggs of mud or 
clay ; others of extraneous matters, agglomerated by a 
viscous liquid, provided from a glandular apparatus 
peculiar to such species. The nests of some exotic 
species, almost entirely formed of this viscous matter, 
are, it is said, highly esteemed as a condiment by the 
Chinese and other Eastern nations. 
During their migratory movements the Swallows 
fly in immense flocks, and they also frequently breed 
in large societies. They are widely dispersed over the 
globe, and some of them are met wdth in almost all 
climates at certain periods of the year. 
The young Swallow, like the young Bee-eater, re- 
mains in the nest for some considerable period after it 
is hatched, which imposes upon the parents a greater 
degree of labour in providing food for their young than 
is allotted to birds of less rapid flight. How beauti- 
fully, then, is the structure and capacities of the 
Swallow adapted to its necessities 1 without showing 
the least sjunptom of weariness, it dashes through the 
air with the utmost rapidity during the greater por- 
tion of the day, scouring a large tract of country in a 
very short space of time. It is thus enabled with ease 
to collect ample nutriment for itself, as well as for its 
caUow brood. 
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