35-
CHINESE
SWIFT.
D escription.
Place.
36. 4- WHITE-BELLIED
SWIFT.
D escription.
European continent; and have alfo been noticed at the Cape of
Good Hope *, and Carolina in North America f. Hence, moft
likely, a general inhabitant of both the old and new continents.
Le Grand Martinet de la Chine, Son. Voy. hid. vol. ii. p. 199.
tjp H I S is eleven inches and a half in length. The bill and
irides blueiih grey j the bill is Ihort, and broad at the bafe :
wings long: the legs Ihort : the tail forked, and as long as
the wings : the top of the head is pale rufous : the throat white :
the hind part of the neck, back, wings, and tail, brown : over the
eye is a ftreak of brown, palling beyond it,, and blending with the
general colour of the neck : the bread: and belly are of a very
pale rufous grey: the eye furrounded with white feathers : legs
blue grey J.
Inhabits China.
Hirnndo Melba, Lin. Sjfi. i. p. 345. N° 11.
—------- alpina, Scop, ann, i. p. 166. N° 252.
La Grande Hirondelle d’Efpagne, Brif. orn. ii. p. 504. N° 1i;.
Le Grand Martinet à ventre blanc, Buf% oif, vi. p. 660.
GreateA Martin, or Swift,. Edvj. i. pi. 27.
LE N G T H eight inches and a half: weight two ounces
five drams. Bill half an inch, fomewhat bent, and black :
* Kolben. t Lasufon,.
t It is not laid whether all the toes are placed as in the laft' fpecies,. though
we fhould Fuppofe i t to be fo from the name..
irides
irides brown : the upper parts of the body grey brown ; wings
and tail deepelt, with a glofs of red and green in fome lights:
throat, bread:, and belly, white : on the neck a collar of grey
brown, mixed with blaclqfh : fide? dulky and white mixed :
lower part of the belly and under tail coverts the fame as the
back: legs Hefti-colour, and covered with feathers on the fore
part and infide : all the toes placed forward, as in our Swift.
This bird inhabits the mountainous parts of Spain-, building
in the holes of rocks. Found alfo on the borders of the Rhone, in
Savoy, ifle of Malta, alps of Switzerland, and rock of Gibraltar *.
It differs in the wings being longer in proportion, and having
only ten feathers in the tail f .
This comes into Savoy the beginning of April, and frequents
the ponds and marfhes for fifteen or twenty days ; after which it
retires to the mountainous parts to breed. Flies higher than our
Swift, and feeds on the fame food. Its flefh is accounted a delicate
morfel. This fpecies is not numerous. Scopoli fays, it
builds on the fummit of the mountains of Tyrol.
Place and
Manners.
Le Martinet a Collier blanc, Buf. oif. vi. p. 671.
------------------------- de Cayenne, PI. enl. 723. f. 2.
S I Z E of the Martin; length five inches and a quarter, or
more. Bill fix or feven lines; colour black: the head is
black: chin and throat white;-palling from the laft in a narrow
collar round the neck : between the-bill and eye is a ftreak of
white, which forks off into two; one palling a little above and the
* At Aleppo— See Hiß. Aleppo, p. 70. f Hiß. des of.
4 F 3 other