Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/49

36 above, and white (often varied with dull red) beneath.

The organs of flight are developed in a very high degree. Almost the whole life of these birds is passed in the air; from earliest "morn to dewy eve," we see them careering along in their rushing flight, and, as has been truly observed, they "dash along apparently as untired when evening closes, as when they began their aerial evolutions with the first dawn of day." They even drink on the wing;—sipping the pool or stream as they skim lightly over its surface. The feet, therefore, being little called into action, are small and weak; yet, as these birds frequently cling from rocks and walls, when they do rest, their toes are furnished with sharp and crooked claws, and the hind-toe can, either wholly, as in the Swifts, or partially, as in the common Chimney Swallow, be brought to point forward.

The Swallows, though widely dispersed over the globe, are eminently children of the sun: they extend, it is true, over the temperate zone, and even reach the Arctic Circle, but it is only in the summer season; on the approach of cold weather, they retire to the torrid climes of equatorial regions. The Swift, which is the most impatient of cold of our visitors, does not appear in England until May, and hastens to depart before the end of August. In almost all the European languages the connection of these birds with a bright and fervid sun, is embodied in the well-known proverb,