SWALLOW AND SWALLOW-LIKE 

 BIRDS. 



SAND-MARTIN.— Form, like the House-Martin 



(plate 58). Length, 5 inches. Upper parts mouse- 

 brown ; under parts white, except the cheeks and 

 a broad breast-band, which are mouse-brown ; tail 

 bluntly forked. Summer migrant. 



Eggs. — 4-6, elongated, pure- white ; "7 x '48 inch 

 (plate 126). 



Nest. — Of dried grass and feathers, placed at the 

 end of a gallery bored in the face of a sand or earth 

 bank beside rivers or the sea, in sand-pits, natural 

 blufls, or artificial cuttings. 



Distribution. — General, though rather local owing 

 to its nesting habits. 



A builder in holes drilled in sand-banks, the Sand- 

 Martin, the smallest of our hirundines, is to be sought 

 by river-banks, sand-cliff's, on the seashore, or wherever 

 an artificial cutting offers a soft clay or sandy face 

 in which he may hollow out his tunnel. He affects 

 the neighbourhood of water, and is commonly to be 

 seen racing up and down over water-courses near his 

 nest. As he goes he utters from time to time a low, 

 guttural sound. The birds are very sociable, nest 

 usually in colonies, gather nightly in great companies 

 in early spring and late summer to sleep in reed or osier 

 beds, and ' swarm ' in the autumn (mid September) 

 in the manner common with the Swallow kind when 



