File:The sportsman's British bird book (1908) (14772165483).jpg

Identifier: sportsmansbritis00lyde (find matches)
Title: The sportsman's British bird book
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915
Subjects: Game and game-birds -- Great Britain Birds -- Great Britain
Publisher: London : Rowland Ward
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ory birds. Their song is aseries of low twittering notes. With the exception of New Zea-land (where, however, an occasionalSWALLOW. wanderer from Australia makes its appearance), swallows and martinsare practically cosmopolitan birds, wandering in summer far intothe Polar regions. They all have great power of flight, and in thecolder parts of the temperate regions are strictly migratory, makingtheir appearance, as a rule, in the spring and departing in theautumn. In the tropics, however, there are resident specie-s. Allcapture their food, consisting of small in.sects, in the air during flight. The swallow is the typical representative of a genus whosegeographical distribution is coextensive with that of the family. Theshank of the leg and the toes are bare of feathers, the plumage ofthe upper-parts is, wholly or in part, steel)- blue, and the tail isgenerally (as in the present species; deeply forked, with a notch onthe inner borders of the pair of long outer feathers. All the species
Text Appearing After Image:
MOUNTED IN TH6 ROWLAND i SWALLOW 485 make nests of mud lined with feathers, but the eggs may be citherspotted or wholly white. In addition to the deeply forked tail, the distinctive characteristicsof the swallow are to be found in the chestnut forehead and throat,the large white spot on each tail-feather, the continuation of the steelyblue of the back in a band across the breast, and the buff of theremainder of the under-parts, except the chestnut tail-coverts. Infemales the forking of the tail is not so marked, there is lesschestnut on the head, and the lower surface is paler. In young birdsthe metallic sheen of the upper-parts is wanting, the forehead and throatare pale chestnut, and the tail-spots have a reddish tinge. Winteringin Africa and India, the swallow in summer ranges over the greaterpart of Europe and Asia as far east as the valley of the Yenesei,its breeding-range including the Himalaya. In the British Islesswallows are found everywhere, but breed less commonly in the ex

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