THE MARTIN. 79 



urbica) was taken from a nest which contained young, 

 under the eaves of Lowry's Hotel at Tubercurry ; County 

 Sligo, and after being placed in a cage, was conveyed ten 

 miles away to Ballymote, where at 10.30 A.M. it was 

 liberated. The nest was watched, and at 10.43 A - M - tne 

 bird returned, having accomplished the ten miles in twelve 

 minutes, a rate of speed equal to fifty miles an hour. 



An idea prevails amongst clean and tidy housewives 

 that the martin brings lice to the houses, and therefore 

 they often destroy the nest on that account. It is true 

 that a kind of louse is found in the nests of the swallow 

 and martin, but it is quite another species to that which 

 attacks the human body, and is perfectly harmless. They 

 swarm in the nests and on the birds, but can live nowhere 

 else. 



Another of these birds of the air, the SAND-MARTIN 

 (Hirundo riparia), arrives in this country earlier than the 

 two preceding, but is the smallest of the Hirundinidce, 

 and in early spring may be seen in considerable numbers 

 hunting for its food up and down the river-side and over 

 the surface of the water. It is easily distinguished by the 

 mouse-coloured plumage of its upper-part. It breeds in 

 holes in high sand-banks, in railway cuttings when through 

 sand. In other ways its habits are much the same as the 

 other members of the family. The sand-martin usually 

 leaves us early about the beginning or middle of Septem- 

 ber; but should the second broods be late, or any great 

 change in the temperature take place, they are very likely 

 to perish. We have been told, upon excellent authority, 

 that in some seasons, when a severe frost has occurred 

 early in September, great quantities of the young birds 

 have been found dead floating on the surface of the 

 Thames. 



