36 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Family HIR UNDINID&. 



THE SAND-MARTIN. 



Cotile riparia, LINN. 



OF the distribution of this bird outside the British Islands, Howard Saunders 

 writes : " In the Faeroes and Iceland the Sand-Martin has not yet been 

 obtained, but on the Continent it is generally distributed from 70 N. lat. to the 

 Mediterranean in summer ; while it also breeds sparingly in the northern districts 

 of Africa, and abundantly in Egypt and Palestine. Eastward, it is found across 

 Asia ; on the American Continent it breeds in large colonies in Alaska, and up to 

 68 N. lat. on the Mackenzie River ; and we trace it to Newfoundland. In winter 

 it visits Mexico, Central America, and the valley of the Amazon ; and in the Old 

 World China, the Indian region, and South-eastern Africa down to Zanzibar. 

 Occasionally it wanders to the Canary Islands." 



In Great Britain this bird is generally distributed wherever the nature of the 

 soil is suited to its requirements when breeding : to the Shetlands, however, it 

 appears to be only an occasional visitor. 



The adult Sand-Martin has the upper parts mouse-brown, slightly darker on 

 the crown and paler on the rump ; the wings and tail blackish-brown ; under parts 

 white, with a broad brown band across the breast ; bill black ; feet dark brown, 

 with a few buffish feathers at the back of the tarsus ; iris hazel. The female 

 nearly resembles the male, but is said to have a slightly narrower band across the 

 breast.* The young have most of the feathers of the upper parts tipped with 

 buffish white, and the under parts, especially the chin and throat, more or less 

 washed with buff. 



The Sand-Martin reaches our shores at the end of March, or beginning of 

 April, and immediately repairs to its chosen building site, usually a nearly per- 

 pendicular wall of hard sand or gravel, either on the bank of river, loch, or lake, 

 along the sea-shore, at the side of a railway-cutting, a road-side where the banks 

 are high, a sand- or gravel-pit, or a brick-earth cutting. Seebohm also mentions 

 having seen heaps of half-rotten sawdust utilized ; but of whatever substance the 



* This difference is often given to distinguish the sexes of foreign birds of various species ; but in some 

 cases I have found it very unreliable. 



