HIRUNDO RIPARIA. 207 



Sand-Martin. 



Hirundo Riparia. (Linn.) 



" Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet ? 

 Have I in my poor old motion the expedition of thought '?" 



—Falstaff. 



This is the smallest of our hirunclines. It is only 5 inches long 

 and 11 inches in extent of wings, the white-rump or house- 

 martin being 5| and 12. It has all the quick, graceful flight 

 of the others, with whom it skims along the scaurs, from the 

 Kirkhill (where stands the last relic of the old Culdean Chapel) 

 to the Martyrs' monument, near the Witch Lake, where the 

 modern sheet-iron offshoot of Popery is, for a colony of the 

 little sand-martins has for centuries taken up its abode in 

 the high brae, overlooked by the old Abbey wall, and the 

 crumbling ruins of the once magnihcent Cathedral, near to 

 where decrepit, but noble, old Walter Mill was burned rather 

 than bow to a lie. Another colony is in the high brae above 

 the Witch Lake, near where stands the plain, but telling, 

 monument of our five martyrs who were burned for the sake of 

 truth.* There is another colony at the steep brae on the way 

 to Kinkell. It is plainer dressed than the others, being greyish 

 brown on the upper parts and brownish white on the under. 

 The wings are long for its size ; the tail of moderate length, and 

 slightly forked. There is so little difference between the male 

 and female, as not to be known without dissection. Like the 

 rest, they arrive here in full plumage, and generally from the 

 4th to the 16th of April. In bleak seasons they are the last 

 of the three. As their homes with us are exposed to the sea, 

 possibly the cold east winds delay them. In 1891, one of my 

 notes says : — " This is the 23rd of April, and a very cold, sleety 

 day it is. No sight of the swallows ; but the very pear tree 

 buds in my little garden are no further advanced than they 

 were six weeks ago, which shows that the buds, as well as the 

 birds, must bow to the weather." In the end of March 1884 a 

 sand-martin flew into the open window of the Bellrock Light- 

 house. It was quite exhausted, and slept seventeen hours ; 

 there had been adverse gales. They were seen on the Tweed 



* Paul Craw, Patrick Hamilton, Henry Forrest, George Wishart, and Walter Mill. 



