PASSERES. ( 144 ) HIRUNDINIDM. 



THE SAND MAETIN. 



SAND SWALLOW, BANK SWALLOW. 



Cotile riparia. 

 %\)t Bimrbanfe. 



The S^vallow tribes in spring 



Thus daily multiply upon the wing, 



As if the air, their element ofjlight, 



Bro7ight forth new broods f ran darkness every night. 



Montgomery. 



The arrival of the Sand Martin, which is smaller and more 

 sombre in colour than its congeners, may be looked for 

 about the same time as that of the Chimney Swallow, but it 

 sometimes comes a little earlier.^ If the weather be cold, 

 it hawks about the sheltered reaches of the Whitadder 

 and other streams for some days after its return, the neigh- 

 bourhood of Allanton Bridge being a favourite resort, and 

 there it is often seen for the first time in the season. 



It seldom frequents buildings," but nests together in 

 large colonies in the banks of streams, the vertical faces 

 of sand-pits and quarries, and steep railway embankments, 

 choosing situations where the soil is of a sandy, friable 

 nature, and in which it can easily bore more or less 



1 Dr. Stuart records seeing a pair at Allauton Bridge on 24tli March 1884. — 

 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. x. p. 576. 



2 A pair nested in a hole in the wall round the policy-ground at Paxton in 

 the summer of 1881. 



