Online Encyclopedia

J SWAN

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 178 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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J

SWAN  . M . the shining steel-blue upper plumage, and the dusky white —in some cases reddening so as almost to
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vie with the frontal and gular patches—of the
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lower parts are well known to every person of observation, as is the markedly forked tail, which is become proverbial of this
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bird . Taking the word swallow in a more extended sense, it is used for all the members of the
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family Hirundinidae,' excepting a few to which the name martin (q.v.) has been applied, and this family includes from 8o to 10o
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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 groups of Oscines, having no near allies; for, though in outward appearance and in some habits the swallows bear a considerable resemblance to swifts (q.v.), the latter belong to a different order, and are not Passerine birds at all, as their structure, both
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internal and
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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 affinity to the
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Indian and Australian Artamus (the species of which genus are often known as wood-swallows or swallow-shrikes) has also been suggested but has not been accepted . (A . N.) SWALLOW-HOLE, in
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physical geography the name applied to a cavity resulting from the solution of rock under the
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action of
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water, and forming, or having at some period formed, the entrance to a subterranean stream-channel . Such holes are
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common in calcareous (
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limestone or chalky) districts, or along the
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line of outcrop of a limestone belt among non-calcareous strata .

These cavities are also known as sinks, dolinas or

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

End of Article: J SWAN
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