176 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

The whole family are insectivorous, and are thus of the
greatest service to man, in keeping within bounds many of
those insects which would otherwise prove highly injurious.
The swallow is always most abundant in rich and warm
situations, for there insects abound, and by its means their
numbers are regulated and limited.

There are many both native and foreign species of this
interesting family ; and for a fall account, the reader must
be referred to other works, as only a small number can be
mentioned in this brief notice.

The Chimney Swallow (Hirundo rustica) is the only spe-
cies properly called with us the swallow, the rest being
either martins or swifts. Its general colour is black, with
a tinge of greyish-blue; the throat and forehead are red-
dish-brown; the lateral tail-feathers are remarkably long, |
which produces the forked appearance, so characteristic of
these birds. They form their nests in chimneys, outhouses,
or ruins, laying three or four eggs, white, spotted with red;
in the warmer parts of the country they have two broods;
the one taking the wing in June, the other just before their
departure in September. In Sweden they build in barns,
and are called /adu swala, the barn swallow ; in the warmer
parts of Europe, where chimneys are rare, they construct