3 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



The call-note of this bird is thin and shrill a sort of sivcer : the only attempt 

 at a song which I have heard is a short low twittering, somewhat vaguely resembling 

 part of the song of the Reed- Warbler, and usually uttered when two birds meet 

 in the air and nutter a moment before continuing their onward flight. 



Like the other Swallows, this bird is purely insectivorous ; its food principally 

 consisting of gnats and small flies, which adhere to its viscid saliva, as with wide- 

 open gape it pursues them in the air : it has been stated to feed its young occa- 

 sionally with large dragon-flies, but this seems rather improbable, the bodies of 

 these insects being so long, that (if given entire) they could not be swallowed by 

 such tiny birds : the only chance is, that the greed of these nestlings which, when 

 fed, frequently try to swallow one another's heads, might possibly enable them to 

 tear the body of the dragon-fly in half. The Sand- Martin usually produces two 

 broods in the year, the first nest being rarely full before the beginning of June, 

 and the second about the middle of July, or even later : the return migration 

 commences late in August, and sometimes continues up to the middle of 

 October. 



As a cage-bird the Sand- Martin cannot be commended : when on a nesting 

 excursion in Kent, in July, 1887, a family of five little Sand- Martins was brought 

 to me : as the birds were too young to let fly, I determined to try and keep them 

 as pets, but I found it a harder task than I had anticipated to induce them to 

 open their mouths for the food (Abrahams' Nightingale Mixture) which I gave 

 them. However, after nearly a week's perseverance, my wife and a girl who then 

 assisted in looking after my birds, succeeded in persuading four of them to open 

 their mouths when food was offered. All five were then in excellent health, though 

 rather too fat : they were very pretty, and when sitting on one's finger, looked 

 exactly like diminutive hawks. Unfortunately, although by this time the Martins 

 were well able to fly, they could only be induced to do so if taken into a room 

 where their food was not in sight. In less than a fortnight they could feed them- 

 selves, and after that they would eat incessantly, swallowing such huge mouthfuls 

 of the soft food, that it seemed marvellous where they could stow it all away : 

 then they would fall asleep, sitting upon the edge of the food-pot, and remain in 

 a state of stupor for perhaps half an hour, when they would wake up and begin 

 to gorge again. Naturally this life did not agree with birds whose nature it is to 

 be incessantly on the move, and who get their food slowly and in minute morsels ; 

 they grew rapidly thinner and weaker, staggered in their walk as if drunken, and 

 dropped off one by one, until, in just over three weeks from the time when I 

 received them, the last of them died. Possibly, if it had been practicable for me 

 to be at home to attend to them, I might have given these birds their food at 



