SAND MARTIN. 231 



eacli other ; and in some favourable localities the external 

 apertures to their retreats, which are all that can be seen of 

 their domicile, are very numerous, — so much so, that the 

 surface of the bank appears perforated like a honeycomb. 

 " The nestlings," says White, " are supported, in common 

 like those of their congeners, with gnats, and other small 

 insects ; and sometimes they are fed with Libellula; (dra- 

 gon-flies) almost as long as themselves. In the last week 

 in June we have seen a row of these sitting on a rail near 

 a pool as perchers ; and so young and helpless, as easily to 

 be taken by hand : but whether the dams ever feed them on 

 the wing, as Swallows and House Martins do, we have never 

 yet been able to determine." When on the wing in search 

 of food they skim low over meadows and commons ; they 

 also drink, sip, and wash as they fly, sometimes, as the 

 House-Martin and the Swallow. The young, when they 

 have entirely left the nest to make room for the second 

 brood, roost in numbers among the osiers which grow on 

 the small islands, and on the banks of rivers. " The Sand 

 Martin, I believe," says Mr. Blackwall, " has never been 

 suspected of forsaking its progeny ; yet that it sometimes 

 docs abandon them I have clearly ascertained, by repeated 

 inspections of the nests of that species during the winter 

 months." 



The Sand Martin is generally, but locally, distributed 

 over the British Islands. Mr. Thompson of Belfast says 

 it is a regular summer visiter to Ireland, but is not so 

 numerous as the Swallow or the House Martin. It visits 

 also the Orkneys and Shetland. Mliller includes it as a 

 bird of Denmark. M. Nilsson says it visits Sweden, and 

 Mr. Hewitson saw it in Norway. It is found in summer 

 in the more temperate parts of Russia and Siberia, and 

 from thence over all the southern parts of the European 

 continent, from which it passes towards the end of autumn 



