364 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



slender filaments stretching behind, it offers no 

 resistance to the air, and aids in shaping the course ; 

 suddenly depressed (the Swallow depresses it with 

 the swiftness of light) and broadened to its utter- 

 most, it becomes a brake, which, aided by a backing 

 movement of the wings, checks the flight as if by 

 magic. Many birds have this faculty in a greater 

 or less degree. The ^Martins and the Swifts use 

 it constantly, and in mere wing-force the Swift 

 excels. But in the control of flight, in the sudden 

 check and the instantaneous turn, the Swallow 

 stands easily first. 



Water has an unfailing charm for the Swallow 

 tribe ; the Swift alone is comparatively careless of 

 it. This, it may be, proves him the alien which 

 science has declared him to be. ^lost faithful of 

 all, the Sand Martin loves the running stream, and 

 seeks his habitation on its very banks. Sitting 

 here in the shade of the hawthorns, with the river 

 swirling at one's feet, the eye wanders to the droop- 

 ing willows on the opposite side, amidst which a 

 Sedge Warbler " chur-r-r-s " and "cheeps," and 

 following these down-stream, reaches a sandy bank. 

 It is about three feet high and perforated with 

 holes. Now a tiny sand-coloured bird flits to the 

 bank, hangs for a moment to the side, then dis- 

 appears in the tunnel. It is his home; probably 

 he was born there. All through our winter days, 

 beneath the burning light of an African sun, the 

 little Sand Martin has had this nook in his mind, 

 and now, with the beat of the South Atlantic in his 

 ear, he is back by the ripple of his old river. 



The tunnel in which the bird disappeared is about 



