58 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



river Lagan, elevated not more than six feet above the usual level of 

 the water ; the other, a stratum of hard sand only a few feet in 

 thickness, overlying the limestone of an extensive quarry, at an ele- 

 vation of about 600 feet above the sea ; but at these places a few 

 pairs only breed*. 



Where banks suitable to the mining operations of the sand martin 

 offer a secure abode in the vicinity of Lough Neagh, the species, as 

 may be inferred from its partiality to water, is abundant. The pre- 

 cipitous sandy banks rising above this vast expanse of waters in 

 Massareene deer-park, near Langford Lodge, and at Glenavy river f, 

 three localities within the distance of a few miles, are resorted to by 

 great numbers. 



These birds are so widely distributed over Ireland, in similar situ- 

 ations to those described, that it would be needless to particularise 

 them any further. The most exposed locality in which I have no- 

 ticed them was about the banks where the river Bush joins the ocean 

 near the Giants' Causeway J. 



When at the Malone sand-pit on the 18th of September 1832, 

 no sand martins appeared. Upon inquiry I learned that the whole 

 colony, excepting a very few birds, had taken their departure about a 

 fortnight before that time. When here on the 1st of October 1833, 

 I was informed that they had departed ten or twelve days previ- 

 ously §. In both years, after the great body of these birds had mi- 



» September 1840. — The latter locality has for some years past been 

 entirely deserted. 



f Where this river falls into Lough Neagh, Mr, Hyndman, on the 16th 

 of August 1836, remarked several hundreds of these birds congregated, and 

 that about fifty at a time would alight on the beach of the lake, which is 

 there earthy and gravelly. It was very stormy, and the wind blowing upon 

 the shore. The birds did not appear to be feeding when on the ground. 

 Sir Wm. Jardine witnessed a proceeding, similar in some respects, which 

 he relates in the following words : " We once observed many hundreds of 

 the sand martin resting on the sands of the Solway Eirth, upon a space not 

 exceeding two acres ; a small stream entered the sea, and they seemed 

 partly resting and washing, and partly feeding on a small fly that had ap- 

 parently come newly to existence, and covered the sands in immense pro- 

 fusion. "- 



% Of the seven burrows of sand martins in the county of Antrim, noticed 

 in this paper, five are contiguous to water, to which I believe the species to 

 be partial, although, to use the words of Mr. Macgillivray, they " take up 

 their abode in situations favourable to mining, whether there be water near 

 them or not." 



§ On a visit to this place on the 10th of September 1840, not a bird was 

 to be seen, but less than a mile distant I saw several associated with house 

 martins and swallows, of which the latter especially were abundant. The 

 burrows of the sand martin here, this year, are fewer than ever known to 

 me, except in 1836, when there were none at all. Now there are but a few 

 holes at the western and at the southern side, about a dozen at each place. 

 The repeated injuries these poor birds have suffered here, from the banks 

 where they nestled being excavated during their stay, led me to believe that 

 they might have changed their quarters, but in the present season (1842) 

 they are as numerous as ever. They were very late in arrival this year, but 

 all at once on the 25th of April the whole colony — about seventy in num- 

 ber — appeared. 



