402 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



SAND-MARTINS. 



March 23rd, 1788. A gentleman, who was this week on a visit 

 at Waverley, took the opportunity of examining some of the hol'-s 

 in the sand-banks with which that district abounds. As these are 

 undoubtedly bored by bank martins, and are the places where they 

 avowedly breed, he was in hopes they might have slept there also, 

 and that he might have surprised them just as they were awaking 

 from their winter slumbers. When he had dug for some time, he 

 found the holes were horizontal and serpentine, as I had observed 

 before ; and that the nests were deposited at the inner end, and had 

 been occupied by broods in former summers, but no torpid birds 

 were to be found. He opened and examined about a dozen holes. 

 Another gentleman made the same search many years ago, with 

 as little success. 



These holes were in depth about two feet. 



March 2ist, 1790. A single bank or sand-martin was seen 

 hovering and playing round the sand-pit at Short Heath, where 

 in the summer they abound. 



April 9th, 1793. A sober hind assures us, that this day, on 

 Wishhanger common between Hedleigh and Frinsham, he saw 

 several bank martins playing in and out, and hanging before some 

 nest-holes in a sand-hill, where these birds usually nestle. 



The incident confirms my suspicions, that this species of hirundo 

 is to be seen first of any ; and gives great reason to suppose that 

 they do not leave their wild haunts at all, but are secreted amidst 

 the clefts and caverns of those abrupt cliffs, where they usually 

 spend their summers. 



The late severe weather considered, it is not very probable that 

 these birds should have migrated so early from a tropical region, 

 through all these cutting winds and pinching frosts ; but it is easy 

 to suppose that they may, like bats and flies, have been awakened 

 by the influence of the sun, amidst their secret latebrse, where they 

 have spent the uncomfortable foodless months in a torpid state, 

 and the profoundest of slumbers. 



There is a large pond at Wish-hanger, which induces these sand- 



