CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 
435 
This species is four inches and a half in length, and twelve 
inches in extent ! altogether of a deep sooty brown, except the 
chin and line over the eye, which are of a dull white; the lores, 
as in all the rest, are black; bill extremely short, hard and black, 
nostrils placed in a slightly elevated membrane; legs covered 
with a loose purplish skin; thighs naked and of the same tint; 
feet extremely muscular; the three fore toes nearly of a length; 
claws very sharp; the wing when closed extends an inch and a 
half beyond the tip of the tail, which is rounded, and consists 
of ten feathers scarcely longer than their coverts; their shafts 
extend beyond the vanes, are sharp pointed, strong, and very 
elastic, and of a deep black colour; the shafts of the wing quills 
are also remarkably strong; eye black, surrounded by a bare 
blackish skin or orbit. 
The female can scarcely be distinguished from the male by 
her plumage. 
