The Sand-Martin 39 



it is found across Asia ; on the American Continent it breeds in large colonies 

 in Alaska, and up to 68° N. lat. on the Mackenzie River ; and we trace it to 

 Newfoundland. In winter it vists Mexico, Central America, and the valley of the 

 Amazon ; and — in the Old World — China, the Indian region, and South-eastern 

 Africa down to Zanzibar. Occasionallj' it wanders to the Canary Islands." 



In Great Britain this bird is generally distributed wherever the nature of the 

 soil is suited to its requirements when breeding : to the Shetlands, however, it 

 appears to be only an occasional visitor. 



The adult Sand-Martin has the upper parts mouse-brown, slightly darker on 

 the crown and paler on the rump ; the wings and tail blackish-brown ; under parts 

 white, with a broad brown band across the breast ; bill black ; feet dark brown, 

 with a few huffish feathers at the back of the tarsus ; iris hazel. The female 

 nearly resembles the male, but is said to have a slightly narrower band across the 

 breast.* The young have most of the feathers of the upper parts tipped with 

 huffish white, and the under parts, especially the chin and throat, more or less 

 washed with buff. 



The Sand-lMartin reaches our shores at the end of March, or beginning of 

 April, and immediately repairs to its chosen building site, usually a nearly per- 

 pendicular wall of hard sand or gravel, either on the bank of river, loch, or lake, 

 along the sea-shore, at the side of a railway-cutting, a road-side where the banks 

 are high, a sand- or gravel-pit, or a brick-earth cutting. Seebohm also mentions 

 having seen heaps of half-rotten sawdust utilized ; but of whatever substance the 

 bank may consist, the Sand-Martin proceeds to excavate a slightly sloping, or at 

 times even a very obliquely upward slanting tunnel. In the first season this tunnel 

 rarely exceeds a foot, or at most eighteen inches, in length ; and, if the bird finds 

 any obstruction, such as a flint-stone or tough root in the way, the tunnel some- 

 times turns almost at right angles, or even slopes obliquelj^ backwards and upwards : 

 year by year this tunnel is excavated further inwards, until it sometimes reaches 

 a length of from three to four feet. At the end of the tunnel a small chamber 

 is hollowed out, sometimes a little above, but in a line with the tunnel, but often 

 on one side of it ; and in the bottom of this chamber the nest is formed. 



The nest of the Sand-Martin is very slight, and loosely constructed of a little 

 dry grass, rootlets, and rarely a straw or two ; the lining, when there is one, consists 

 of feathers ; when the nest is not far from the entrance the feather lining is either 

 absent, or a few collected at random are carelessly pushed into the centre ; but 

 when at a great distance from the light, white feathers are usually selected and 



* This differeuce is often given lo .listinguish the sexes of foreign birJs of various species; but iu some 

 cases I have found it very unreliable. 



