1883-84] Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Club. 121 



occasional visitant, the large Alpine Swift (^Cijpselus alpinns), only 

 one specimen of which I have ever seen in the flesh, and that was 

 about thirty years ago, in the hands of a taxidermist in London. We 

 always welcome with pleasure the arrival of Swallows in the spring 

 as the harbingers of mild genial weather. The small Sand or Bank 

 Martin is usually the first to appear. There is a peculiarity about 

 the breeding habits of this species which, I believe, is not generally 

 known ; but as we have the statement on the authority of those 

 who have, in studying ornithology, paid close attention to these birds 

 in their African winter quarters, we can scarcely dispute the fact that, 

 unlike their congeners, they breed both here and also during our 

 winter in Africa, and to this is probably to be attributed their greater 

 numbers as compared with all others of the Swallow kind. Their 

 mode of nidification, too, is quite sui generis; for, unlike the other 

 Swallows and Martins, which construct their nests of clay or mud, 

 the Sand-martin, with indomitable perseverance, perforates a hole, 

 about two feet in length, usually in a sandbank, and in a small 

 hollow at the end deposits its eggs. It is extraordinary that a bird 

 with so small a bill and such short legs should be able to accomplish 

 this excavation ; but this is one of those instances of Avhat can be 

 done with small powers by perseverance and industry. A colony 

 of these birds build in a sandbank to the east of Inverleith Eow, 

 and unto recently there were always a few in the bank at Powder- 

 hall ; but where I have seen them in the greatest numbers was in a 

 railway- cutting at St Marys Cray, in Kent. There they form quite 

 a remarkable sight, the whole face of the cutting being perforated by 

 them, and you see many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them to- 

 gether on the wing. Another place where I have seen them in vast 

 numbers is in a sandstone quarry at Bebbington, near Liverpool. 

 The Sand-martin is readily distinguished from the House-martin by 

 its brown back, which in the latter species is bluish black. 



The House-martin is the species with which we are most familiar, 

 from its habit of fixing its nest under the eaves of our houses or in 

 the corners of our windows ; and it is not easily driven away from 

 the spot it has selected, for I have known the nest destroyed four or 

 five times, and stiU the birds persevered, as Thomson describes it — 



" To build their hanging house intent." 



Often, when the nest is nearly completed, a pert Sparrow will 

 drive the biiilders away and take possession ; and there is an 

 anecdote related that on one occasion the pair of Martins, not being 

 able to dislodge the intruder, were joined by many others of their 

 kind, and with their united efforts succeeded in plastering the 

 Sparrow up by filling the entrance with mud. A short time ago a 

 number of House-martins were disporting themselves over the classic 

 Avon, when a Swan underneath them began to preen his plumage, 



