File:The sportsman's British bird book (1908) (14565650759).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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Text Appearing Before Image:
ances, one in 1849 or 1850 andthe other in 1894, of the former nature, and one, in 1891, of the latterbeing on record. A specimen of the red-rumped swallow (Hirundo rufula), a speciesvisiting the south of hrance and common in North Africa, was pickedup on Fair Island in June 1906. Sand Martin ^^^^ sand-martin (Clivicoln riparia of some ornitho- (Cotile riparia). logical works, and Riparia riparia of others) typifies a cosmopolitan group occupying to some extent an intermediate position be-tween the swallows on theone hand and the martinson the other. In all sand-martins except the presentspecies (in which there isa small tuft of feathers onthe hind surface of theleg) the shank of the legand the toes are bare ;the tail is but slightlyforked, without whitepatches at the tips of itsfeathers ; and the colourof the plumage of theupper-parts is dull slat)-brown. In addition to thefeatures mentioned above,most of which arc com-mon to the whole groupof sand-martins, thepresent species is dis-
Text Appearing After Image:
\MiM \icriN I i,viN(;. SAND-MARTIN 487 tinguished from other British HirundinidcX- by its small size, thetotal length not exceeding 5 inches. The general colour is ashybrown, darker on the crown of the head but lighter on the lower partof the neck, the brown extending in the form of a band across thechest ; the under-parts are wholly white. In the female the darkchest-band is somewhat narrower; and in young birds the feathersof the dark area have dull white tips, while those of the under-partsare tinged with buff. The sand-martin ranges over practically the whole of the northernhemisphere, breeding in Europe from the extreme north of Scandinavia,and from about latitude 50° in the Uralrange southwards to the Mediterranean, butin Asia not usually south of the Himalaya.To India and Tenasserim, as well as toAfrica and Central and South America, it ismainly a summer-visitor, but since specimenshave been taken in the first-named countryin May and June, it probably sometimesstays there to b

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