AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 239 



distance, by its peculiar hesitating manner of flight. 

 We presume that the nesting-habits of this species 

 are known to most of our readers, and will therefore 

 only here state that the favourite localities for a 

 colony of Sand-Martins are the steep sandy banks of 

 rivers, railway-cuttings, chalk- and gravel-pits, in 

 which the birds drive tunnels varying, it is said, from 

 eighteen inches to nine feet in length. Our own 

 experience has been but scanty ; but we certainly 

 never met wdth a nest at more than three feet from 

 the bank, and should, from recollection, reckon the 

 average length of perhaps some ten or twelve tunnels 

 which we explored at from twenty to thirty inches. 

 The work of these birds is most interesting to observe, 

 and their rapidity marvellous, when we take into 

 consideration the feeble instruments with which 

 Nature has provided them. The nest is composed of 

 dry grass with a profuse lining of feathers, and 

 placed in a slight enlargement at the end of the 

 gallery ; the eggs, generally four or five, are pure 

 white, very much resembling, but smaller than, those 

 of the Common Martin. As the editor of the fourth 

 edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds' most truly remarks, 

 in a footnote, vol. ii. p. 357, "Those who have dug 

 out the nests of this bird need not be reminded of 

 the inconvenience which the operation is likely to 

 produce from the swarms of fleas with which, towards 

 the end of the summer, they are infested," and fleas 

 are not the only vermin in these abodes. In dis- 

 tricts in which the Sand-Martin is common, thousands 

 of them collect about the rivers at the end of August, 

 roosting in the trees on the banks, and taking their 

 departure early in September. We have found the 

 Sand-Martin common in suitable spots in every part 



