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 



All the upper parts, cheeks, and a broad bar on the breast, mouse-colour ; 

 throat, fore part of the neck, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white ; 

 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 vSwallow 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. 



