. A history of British birds . ssy bluish-black, the feathers of the nape and back whiteat the base ; rump and upper tail-coverts, except those nextthe tail which are glossy bluish-black, white; wing- and tail-quills dull black, shafts white beneath ; chin and all thelower part of the body white, as are the feathers whichcover the legs and toes ; axillaries and lower wing-covertspale brown : claws greyish horn-colour. The whole length is rather more than five inches and aquarter; from the carpal joint to the tip of the first primary,which is the longest, four inches and a quarter. There is no
. A history of British birds . ssy bluish-black, the feathers of the nape and back whiteat the base ; rump and upper tail-coverts, except those nextthe tail which are glossy bluish-black, white; wing- and tail-quills dull black, shafts white beneath ; chin and all thelower part of the body white, as are the feathers whichcover the legs and toes ; axillaries and lower wing-covertspale brown : claws greyish horn-colour. The whole length is rather more than five inches and aquarter; from the carpal joint to the tip of the first primary,which is the longest, four inches and a quarter. There is no external distinction of sex. The young aresooty-brown above with hardly any gloss, and not of so purea white beneath, while the tail is shorter and less forked. * There they attempted to build nests on the masts of his ship. Herr Holm-gren (Skand. Fogl. p. 377) quotes an account of our Martin building its nestand bringing up a brood on board a steamer plying on the river Klar in Sweden. SAND-MARTIN. PASSERES. 355 COTILE RIPARIA (LiimaBus*). THE SAND-MARTIN. Hirundo riparia. CoTiLE, F. Boie +.—Bill short, depressed and very wide at the base, commis-sure straight. Nostrils basal, oval, partly closed by a membrane and openinglaterally. Wings, with nine primaries, long and pointed. Tail forked, of twelvefeathers, the outermost not abriiptly attenuated. Legs and feet slender, andbare except a tuft of feathers on the tarsus just above the hallux ; toes moderate,three in front, one behind ; claws strong. The Sand-Martin is the smallest of the Hirundinidce ofthis country, and commonly the earliest to arrive in spring ;but, not presenting itself to the gaze of men by at oncefrequenting their habitations, its annual return is not soregularly or so generally Indeed for some time * Hirundo riparia, Linnoeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 344. + Isis, 1822, p. 550. X The Editor suspects that most of the Early Swallows of newspaper-para- 356 HIRUNDINTD/E. after it has r
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Keywords: ., bookauthorsaun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds
