442 ON VARIOUS PARTS 



their young. Fern-owls, like snipes, stone curlews, and some 

 other birds, make no nest. Birds that build on the ground do 

 not make much of nests. WHITE. 



No author that I am acquainted with has given so accurate 

 and pleasing an account of the manners and habits of the goat- 

 sucker as Mr. White, taken entirely from his own observa- 

 tions. Its being a nocturnal bird, has prevented my having 

 many opportunities of observing it. I suspect that it passes 

 the day in concealment amidst the dark and shady gloom of 

 deep-wooded dells, or as they are called here gills ; having 

 more than once seen it roused from such solitary places by 

 my dogs, when shooting in the day-time. I have also some- 

 times seen it in an evening, but not long enough to take 

 notice of its habits and manners. I have never seen it but in 

 the summer, between the months of May and September. 

 MARKWICK. 



SAND MARTINS. 



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

 visit at Waverley, took the opportunity of examining some of 

 the holes 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 horizon- 

 tal 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 21, 1700. A single bank or sand martin was seen 

 hovering and playing round the sand pit at Short Heath, 

 where in the summer they abound. 



