284 SWALLOWS AND MARTINS 



Great Britain and Ireland, and in some districts also inland on the face of perpen- 

 dicular crags. Nests in the roofs of sea caves and inside crevices of rocks are much 

 rarer, but have occasionally been recorded, and at times a number of nests may 

 be found under the roof of a shed or outbuilding, in much the same position as 

 the normal nest of the swallow. I have met with nests of this type in Suffolk, 

 Staffordshire, and Derbyshire, and they have also been recorded from Cheshire 

 (Zool, 1894, p. 400; Birds of West Cheshire, etc., p. 295). In shape the nest is 

 like a half or quarter of a cup, but differs from that of the swallow in being built 

 up to the eaves above, with a narrow opening, instead of being open at the top. It 

 is composed of mud, more regularly built than that of the swallow, and with much 

 less conspicuously protruding bents and bits of fibrous matter, lined usually with 

 feathers and a few bits of straw or dry grass. (PI. xxxi.) The species is naturally 

 gregarious in its breeding habits, and large numbers of nests may be found in some 

 cases touching or overlapping one another. Both sexes share in the construction. 

 Eggs, usually 4 or 5, sometimes only 3, or rarely 6 in number, white without much 

 gloss. Average size of 100 eggs (PL D.), -74 x -54 in. [18-8 x 13-27 mm.]. The eggs 

 are laid rather late, seldom before the latter part of May, and often not till early 

 June. Incubation lasts about a fortnight, and Thienemann has shown that the 

 male takes part as well as the female. Two and even three broods are reared during 

 the season, and the young of the last brood often do not leave the nest till just before 

 the autumn migration begins. [F. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Insects, chiefly flies and small beetles, but what difference, if 

 any, there is between the food of this species and its congeners is unknown. The 

 young are fed by both parents. [F. B. K.] 



6. Song Period. The species sings more or less during the whole of its 

 stay. [F. B. K.] 



SAND-MARTIN [Ripdria ripdria (Linnaeus). Cotile riparia (Linnaeus). 

 Bank- or pit-martin, bank-, sand-, or river-swallow. French, hirondelle de 

 rivage ; German, Uferschwalbe ; Italian, topino], 



I. Description. This is readily distinguished, being the smallest of the 

 British swallow tribe, and of a pale brown colour above. (PL 74.) Length 4'8 in. 

 [122 mm.]. The pale brown of the upper parts is relieved by the somewhat darker 

 colour of the wings, the remiges of which have a slight greenish metallic lustre. 

 The under parts are white, save for a band of pale brown across the fore-neck and 



