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



still more were seen hawking about in company with Hir. rustica \ 

 as flies were numerous, they probably obtained plenty of food : at 

 four o'clock p.m. all were gone. On the 30th of April this species 

 was just commencing nest-building against the houses in the town 

 of Navarino ; in May I remarked it to be common about Smyrna ; in 

 June at Patras, where it was as usual building against the houses in 

 the town ; at Trieste in the same month it was numerous, as it like- 

 wise was in July about Venice, Verona, and Milan — in the last city 

 having fine nestling-places about the magnificent Arch of Peace, 

 where its "cradle" was supported on the sculptured leaves adorn- 

 ing the ceiling of the gateway. This notice, compared with that of 

 the swallow, as seen during the same tour, shows that, as in our 

 own northern climate, the H. rustica is much more generally dis- 

 tributed than the H. urbica. 



The most complete history of this species, as observed in the 

 British Islands, appears in the third volume of Macgillivray's ' British 

 Birds/ where the author and his contributors, Mr. Hepburn and Mr. 

 Weir, each and all treat very fully of it from personal observation, 

 the two latter gentlemen having watched its progress of nest-building, 

 frequency of feeding young, &c, with the most praiseworthy and 

 extraordinary patience. 



Sand Martin, Hirundo riparia. Linn. As the swallow 

 is much more abundant than the house martin in Ireland, so 

 again is that species considerably more numerous than the 

 sand martin : — the last is everywhere a local species. It re- 

 sorts to suitable places in all quarters of the island. 



The sand martin arrives the earliest of the Hirundinidce in the north 

 of Ireland, appearing occasionally at the latter end of the month of 

 March. In 18'28 several were seen in a mountainous situation near 

 Belfast by Mr. Wm. Sinclaire and myself, on the 29th of that month, 

 and when pointed out to the respectable farmer at whose place they 

 appeared, he assured us they had been seen there several days before 

 that time. 



The observation of the eloquent Wilson (Amer. Ornit.), that the 

 sand martin " appears to be the most sociable with its kind and the 

 least intimate with man of all our swallows," has been objected to 

 as erroneous*, but my observation leads me to consider it as critically 

 correct. Although the sand martin never tenants the swift's favourite 

 abode, the tower or the steeple, attaches not its nest to our dwellings 

 like the martin, nor with the swallow claims the roof of our out- 

 houses for its protection, yet it is in a considerable degree benefited 

 by the operations of man. The excavations in the sand-pit are, 

 when carried to such an extent as to form a high perpendicular front, 

 the means of affording to this bird a place to rear its young in com- 

 parative security, and it appears to me that such banks are selected, 

 whether adjacent to or remote from houses, solely from their adapt- 

 ation to its purposes, and not because it either seeks or " shuns 

 human neighbourhood." The species is as partial to the precipitous 



* Kennie, in his edition of Montagu's Orn. Diet. p. 20. 



