64 



SAND MARTINS, 



green; and although the contemplative mind can find charms and beauties in 

 every season, yet we are always glad to hail the halcyon days of spring, when 

 the meads are once again spangled with floral beauties, and the woods resound 

 with nature's joyous choir; it is then we find that 



"Trees, and flowers, and streams 

 Are social and bcnerolent; and he 

 Who oft coniinuneth in their language pure, 

 Koaniing among them at the cool of day, • 



Shall find, like him who Eden's garden dressed. 

 His Maker there to teach his listening heart." 

 Leeds. 



SAND MARTINS, {HIRUNDO RIPABIA.) 



BY O. S. ROUND, ESQ. 



Of all the Swallow family, there is not one perhaps more amusing and 

 attractive than the Bank or Sand Martin, though the least indebted to nature 

 for '^personal attractions." How often have I sat on the river's bank, in the 

 close of an October evening, watching with wonder and admiration the settling 

 of myriads of these birds to roost in the willow beds on the banks! and what 

 food for mental speculation did it afford me ! Nor was it the sight alone, but 

 as the light waned, and objects were no longer fairly discernible, there came, 

 as it seemed, more distinctly on the ear the "hum of wings," comparable to 

 nothing so much as the ^'rush of mighty waters." To attempt to calculate 

 the numbers would have been a useless as well as fruitless task, for many 

 thousands were most probably there; and when the chill air no longer permitted 

 me prudently to remain, it seemed as though the ceaseless feathers would 

 never cease their stirring, arising, I suppose, from the difficulty of the slender 

 waving twigs being found adequate to the accommodation of such multitudes, 

 each in such a snug position as, we may fancy, even a bird would choose for 

 his roosting-place. I could well picture to myself some half-dozen occupants 

 of a bending bough comfortably settled for the night, when an ousted wanderer, 

 by adding only his tiny weight, would upset the whole economy, and oblige 

 all, like himself, to resort once more to their wings. But what a sound and 

 sight it was! truly astonishing; and as the bright moon shone mildly on the 

 glittering stream, still as I receded I could hear the same eternal hum and 

 fancy the same eternal commotion. 



They were certainly in good practice of their flying powers, and good need 

 would they full soon have of them all; and it was a natural thought of how 

 soon that mighty legion would be fluttering, like butterflies of larger growth, 

 aloft in the fields of air over the wide ocean to distant realms, dispersed, and 

 when again to be re-united, perhaps as to as much as two-thirds, never; 

 for it is a notorious fact that to the same locality the same number of pairs 

 regularly return. This curious fact was discovered by Gilbert White, the 

 Selborne historian, with regard to the Swallows and Martins, and why 



