In winter wrens have a custom of seeking some hole or other convenient shelter and huddling together in small parties for the sake of warmth.
A large number build their nests of mud, collected in small pellets and held together by the secretion of the salivary glands. These nests are commonly more or less cup-shaped, and fastened under the eaves of dwelling-houses or other buildings, or placed on a convenient beam or other ledge. The Red-rumped Swallows and Fairy Martins—species enjoying an enormous distribution, being found in India, Africa, America, and Australia—build very large flask-shaped nests, having the entrance produced into a funnel often eight or nine inches in length. Others, like the Sand-martin, excavate long tunnels, terminating in larger chambers, in the faces of sand-banks—a performance which must certainly be regarded as wonderful, when one realises the feeble tools with which the task of excavating has to be performed. Some species utilise the holes made by other birds, in one species this hole being itself bored within the burrow of the viscacha.
All are more or less migratory in their habits, some covering enormous distances in journeying to and fro between their winter retreats and their summer breeding-places. The Common Swallow and House-martin, for example, leave the shores of Africa early in the spring, and distribute themselves over Europe, thousands visiting the British Islands. After rearing in their respective breeding-places from two to three broods, they return with their offspring before the rigours of winter set in to the African Continent. The routes and destinations of the swallow are now well known; but as much cannot be said for the house-martin, whose winter quarters are as yet enshrouded in mystery. That they must be somewhere in Africa is all that can at present be said.
Three species of the Swallow Tribe visit England regularly every year, and remain to breed. These are the Common or Chimney-swallow, and the House-martin just referred to, and the little Sand-martin. In the two first mentioned the upper-parts are of a dark steel-blue colour with a metallic gloss, but they are, nevertheless, easily distinguished one from another,—since the swallow has a deeply forked tail, and a bright chestnut patch on the throat, with a similarly coloured band across the forehead; whilst the martin lacks the chestnut markings, and is pure white beneath, with a large white patch on the lower part of the back, and a less markedly forked tail. Furthermore, the legs of the martin are feathered down to the claws, whilst the feet of the swallow are bare. The sand-martin is a little greyish-brown bird, with white under-parts. It is the earliest of the Swallow Tribe to arrive in Britain, and the first to depart.
Photo by J. T. Newman] [Berkhamsted.
YOUNG SWALLOWS.
For hundreds of years it has been regarded as most unlucky to kill a swallow.
Lyre-birds and Scrub-birds.
At the beginning of the account of the Perching-birds it was stated that the group was divided into two sections, and that each of these was further sub-divided into two. With the Swallows the first sub-division of the first section ended; the second we are to consider now in the very singular Lyre-birds and Scrub-birds of Australia.