84 THE SAND MARTIN 
year’s family are launched on the world, and are quite equal to 
building for their own accommodation. No collecting of materials 
is requisite. The muddy edge of the nearest pond will provide 
plaster enough and to spare to carry out all necessary repairs ; 
shreds of straw are to be had for the picking up, and farmyard 
feathers are as plentiful as of yore. It would seem then a reasonable 
conclusion, that a bird endowed with an instinct powerful enough 
to guide it across the ocean, and a memory sufficiently powerful 
to lead it to the snug window corner of the same cottage where it 
reared its first brood, may live in the past as well as the present, 
and that its seeming joyousness is a reality, even mixed perhaps 
with hopeful anticipations of the future. 
As the reader may, if he will, have ample opportunity of watch- 
ing the habits of a bird that probably builds its nest under the 
eaves of his own house, whether he dwell in a town; a village, or a 
lonely cottage, it is unnecessary to enter into further details of its 
biography. 
THE SAND MARTIN 
COTILE RIPARIA 
AlJ the upper parts, cheeks, and a broad bar on the breast, mouse-colour 3 
throat, fore part of the neck, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white 3 
legs and feet naked with the exception of a few small feathers near the 
insertion of the hind toe; tail forked, rather short. Length five inches. 
Eggs pure white. 
WHILE all the other British species of Swallow resort from choice 
to the haunts of man, the Sand or Bank Martin is indifferent about 
the matter. Provided that it can find a convenient place for ex- 
cavating its nest, other considerations are omitted. It is said to 
be partial to the vicinity of water, but even this selection is rather 
to be attributed to the accidental circumstance that perpendicular 
cliffs often have rivers running at their base, than to any decided 
preference shown by the bird for such situations. Railway cuttings 
carried through a sandy district offer, perhaps, equal attraction ; 
and it is probable that a majority of the colonies planted within the 
last twenty years overlook, not the silent highway of the river, but 
the unromantic parallel bars of iron which have enabled man to vie 
almost with the Swallow in rapidity of flight. The word colonies 
is applicable to few British birds besides the Sand Martin. Others — 
of the tribe not unfrequently construct their nests in close proximity 
with each other, and, when thus associated, are most neighbourly 
—hunting in society, sporting together, and making common. 
cause against an intrusive Hawk ; but still this is no more than a 
fortuitous coming together. 
It so happens that a certain district offers good hunting-ground, 
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