Colophon

The animal on the cover of Mercurial: The Definitive Guide is a House Martin (Delichon urbicum), which is part of the swallow family. Originally cliff and cave dwellers, these noisy birds now prefer human structures and can be found nesting in bridges and houses throughout Europe, north Africa, and the more temperate regions of Asia. The name House Martin is derived from the bird’s tendency to build its nests under the eaves of buildings. They build closed-cup nests, attached to both the vertical surface and the overhang of the structure, and reinforce them with mud, creating unusually strong dwellings.

Given the House Martin’s wide range of habitation, if you are trying to avoid the eternal pit of peril and are presented with the immortal question, “Is that an African swallow or a European swallow?”, you should answer, “Both.”

The cover image is from Cassell’s Natural History. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSansMonoCondensed.