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Encyclopedia Britannica



SWALLOW (A. S. swalewe, Icel. svala, Du. zwaluw, Ger. Schwalbe)

This article appears in Volume V26, Page 178 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SUS-TAV
SWALLOW (A. S. swalewe, Icel. svala, Du. zwaluw, Ger. Schwalbe) , the bird which of all others is recognized as the harbinger of summer in the northern hemisphere. The name Hirundo rustica of Linnaeus is now employed for the common chimney-swallow of Europe, which has been divided into four or five races. In summer it ranges all over Europe, and in
Asia
  extends to Manchuria and China; in winter it migrates
south
 , reaching India, Burma, the Malay Peninsula and the whole of Africa. The common swallow of North America, usually called the barn-swallow, is H. erythrogastra, but in summer it also reaches Alaska and Greenland and extends across to Lake Baikal. The winter migration extends to Burma for the Asiatic swallows and to
South
  Brazil for those of America. In all some twenty-seven species of Hirundo are recognized, the range of the genus being practically world-wide. Returning, usually already paired, to its summer haunts, after its winter sojourn in southern lands, and generally reaching England about the first
week
  in April, the English swallow at once repairs to its old quarters, nearly always around the abodes of men; and, about a month later, the site of the nest is chosen, resort being had in most cases to the very spot that has formerly served the same purposethe old structure, if still remaining, being restored and refurnished. So trustful is the bird that it commonly establishes itself in any of men's works that will
supply
  the necessary
accommodation
 , and a shed, a barn, or any building with an open roof, a chimney that affords a support for the nest, or even the room of an inhabited houseif chance should give free access theretoto say nothing of extraordinary positions, may be the place of its choice. Wheresoever placed, the nest is formed of small lumps of moist earth, which, carried to the spot in the bird's bill, are duly arranged and modelled, with the aid of short straws or slender sticks, into the required shape. This is generally that of a half-saucer, but it varies according to the exigencies of the site. The materials dry quickly into a hard crust, which is lined with soft feathers, and therein are laid from four to six white eggs, blotched and speckled with grey and orange-brown deepening into black. Two broods are usually reared in the season, and the
young
  on leaving the nest soon make their way to some leafless bough, whence they try their powers of flight, at first accompanying their parents in short excursions on the wing, receiving from them the food which they are as yet unable to capture, until able to shift for themselves. They collect in flocks, often of many hundreds, and finally leave the country about the end of August or early in September, to be followed, after a few weeks, by their progenitors. They moult their feathers in their winter quarters, and this fact affords one of the strongest arguments against the popular belief (which, curious to say, is still partly if not fully entertained by many who should know better) of their becoming torpid in winter, for a state of torpidity would suspend all animal-action .2 The chestnut forehead and throat, . 1 The language was first reduced to writing by the Arabs, who
still use the Arabic character. But the European missionaries have replaced this by the Roman system, which is more suited for the transliteration of most African, end especially of the Bantu, tongues.
2 See John Hunter's Essays and Observations in Natural History, edited by Sir R. Owen in 1861 (ii. 280). An excellent bibliography of the swallow-torpidity controversy, up to 1878, is given by Professor Coues (Birds of the Colorado Valley, pp. 378-390), who seems still to hanker after the ancient faith in " hibernation."


End of Article: SWALLOW (A. S. swalewe, Icel. svala, Du. zwaluw, Ger. Schwalbe)


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