SAND-MARTIN 155 



April 12, Kent (B.O.C. Report). 1906, May 2, Ruckinge, 

 first seen in numbers, about their old nests. In the 

 autumn (October 10, 1905), in the surrounding districts 

 and Ruckinge, the Martins were still about the Royal 

 Military Canal and villages ; on the 17th the greater 

 part of them had left, but on October 23, a great many 

 were found among the Swallows on the high slopes on 

 the south-east side of Lympne Church overlooking 

 Romney Marsh. On November 10, at 9.30 a.m., a pair 

 of Martins were flying about the garden at Ruckinge ; 

 it was a very mild morning. In the Bulletin of the 

 B.O.C. (vol. xii., p. 26, 1903), "Mr. Digby Pigott re- 

 ported, on the authority of Mr. R. Norton, of Downs 

 House, Yalding, that in November there were young 

 Martins in a nest in Kent. Mr. Norton had watched 

 the mother feedinii them for some minutes." 



Genus COTILE, F. Boie. 



SAND-MARTIN. 



Cotile riparia (Linnaeus.) S.N., i., p. 344 (1766). 

 Sand-Martin, Boys, 1792. 



The Sand-Martin on its arrival in Kent is very abun- 

 dant, and for a few days only skims the surface of the 

 ponds and rivers for food, generally in company with the 

 Swallow, and then they take to the inland sand-pits for 

 the breeding season. If the sand-pits are large, the 

 birds are very numerous, but in many instances only 

 a pair or two occupy a high bank where there is not 

 sufficient room for more. 



Mr. C. Collingwood records the arrival of the Sand- 



