132 British Birds, 



SAND MARTIN — {Cotile riparia ; formerly, Hirundo 

 riparia). 



Bank Martin, Pit Martin, Sand Swallow, Bank 

 Swallow, River Swallow. — This delicate little visitor 

 comes to us in the spring, often very early, from 

 Africa, as do also the two others of the genus just 

 named. Where it does occur — and it is generally 

 diffused — it is often seen in very large numbers. A 

 ballast pit at Fingringhoe, in Essex, used to be occu- 

 pied by the most numerous colony I was acquainted 

 with ; and a site afforded by the surface beds of 

 sand and soil above a steep scarp of rock on Tweed- 

 bank, nearly opposite Norham Castle, used to accom- 

 modate another colony. Some of the holes are bored 

 to a very great depth. I have enlarged the orifice of 

 many till it would admit my whole shoulder, and 

 have then been unable to reach the termination of the 

 gallery. Others are much shorter, and admitting of 

 more easy access to the nest. The female will, not- 

 withstanding the noise and violence attending the 

 enlargement of the aperture of her nest-hole, sit 

 resolutely on, and allow herself to be taken in hand 

 with scarcely a struggle or sign of resistance — even of 

 life, sometimes. One I took thus many years since 

 lay in my open hand for a minute or more, and then 

 at last flew only leisurely away. A little loose, soft 

 straw, with some feathers, serves to receive the eggs, 

 which are four to six in number, often much elongated 

 in shape, of the most delicate white, and beautifully 

 pink from the thinness of the shell, before they are 

 blown. 



