The Natural History of Selborne 239 



as might be expected ; since banks so perforated have been dug out 

 with care in the winter, when nothing was found but empty nests. 



The sand-martin arrives much about the same time with the 

 swallow, and lays, as she does, from four to six white eggs. But as 

 this species is cryptogame, carrying on the business of nidification, 

 incubation, and the support of its young in the dark, it would not 

 be so easy to ascertain the time of breeding, were it not for the 

 coming forth of the broods, which appear much about the time, or 

 rather somewhat earlier than those of the swallow. The nestlings 

 are supported in common like those of their congeners, with gnats 

 and other small insects ; and sometimes they are fed with libellula 

 (dragon-flies) almost as long as themselves. In the last week in 

 June we have seen a row of these sitting on a rail near a great pool 

 as perchers, and so young and helpless, as easily to be taken by 

 hand ; but whether the dams ever feed them on the wing, as 

 swallows and house-martins do, we have never yet been able to 

 determine ; nor do we know whether they pursue and attack birds 

 of prey. 



When they happen to breed near hedges and enclosures, they are 

 dispossessed of their breeding-holes by the house-sparrow, which is 

 on the same account a fell adversary to house-martins. 



These hirundines are no songsters, but rather mute, making only 

 a little harsh noise when a person approaches their nests. They 

 seem not to be of a sociable turn, never with us congregating with 

 their congeners in the autumn. Undoubtedly they breed a second time, 

 like the house-martin and swallow, and withdraw about Michaelmas. 



Though in some particular districts they may happen to abound, 

 yet on the whole, in the south of England at least, is this much the 

 rarest species. For there are few towns or large villages but what 

 abound with house-martins; few churches, towers, or steeples, but 

 what are haunted by some swifts ; scarce a hamlet or single cottage- 

 chimney that has not its swallow ; while the bank-martins, scattered 

 here and there, live a sequestered life among some abrupt sand-hills, 

 and in the banks of some few rivers. 1 



1 All this is now changed, and even in White's own immediate area the sand- 

 martin has become extremely common. ED. 



