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J SWAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 178 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SWAN  . M . the shining See also:steel-See also:blue upper plumage, and the dusky See also:white —in some cases reddening so as almost to See also:vie with the frontal and gular patches—of the See also:lower parts are well known to every See also:person of observation, as is the markedly forked tail, which is become proverbial of this See also:bird . Taking the word See also:swallow in a more extended sense, it is used for all the members of the See also:family Hirundinidae,' excepting a few to which the name See also:martin (q.v.) has been applied, and this family includes from 8o to 10o See also:species, which have been placed in many different genera . The true swallow has very many affines, some of which range- almost as widely as itself does, while others seem to have curiously restricted limits, and much the same may be said of several of its more distant relatives . But altogether the family forms one of. the most circumscribed and therefore one of the most natural See also:groups of Oscines, having no near See also:allies; for, though in outward See also:appearance and in some habits the swallows See also:bear a considerable resemblance to swifts (q.v.), the latter belong to a different See also:order, and are not Passerine birds at all, as their structure, both See also:internal and See also:external, proves . It has been sometimes stated that the Hirundinidae have their nearest relations in the flycatchers (q.v.) ; but the assertion is very questionable, and the supposition that they are allied to the Ampelidae (cf . Waxw1NG), though possibly better founded, has not been confirmed . An See also:affinity to the See also:Indian and Australian Artamus (the species of which genus are often known as See also:wood-swallows or swallow-shrikes) has also been suggested but has not been accepted . (A . N.) SWALLOW-HOLE, in See also:physical See also:geography the name applied to a cavity resulting from the See also:solution of See also:rock under the See also:action of See also:water, and forming, or having at some See also:period formed, the entrance to a subterranean stream-channel . Such holes are See also:common in calcareous (See also:limestone or chalky) districts, or along the See also:line of outcrop of a limestone See also:belt among non-calcareous strata .

These cavities are also known as sinks, dolinas or See also:

butter-tubs, and by other See also:local names, and sometimes as pot-holes; the last See also:term, however, is also synonymous with See also:Giant's See also:Kettle (q.v.) . See See also:CAVE .

End of Article: J SWAN
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