4i 6 The Natural History of Selborne 



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 horizontal 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 little success. 



These holes were in depth about two feet. 



March 21, 1790. A single bank or sand-martin was seen hovering 

 and playing round the sand-pit at Short Heath, where in the summer 

 they abound. 



April 9, 1793. A sober hind assures us that this day, on 

 Wishhanger Common, between Hedleigh and Frinsham, he saw 

 several blank-martins playing in and out, and hanging before some 

 nest-holes in a sand-hill, where these birds usually nestle. 



The incident confirms my suspicions, that this species of hirundo 

 is to be seen first of any ; and gives great reason to suppose that 

 they do not leave their wild haunts at all, but are secreted amidst 

 the clefts and caverns of those abrupt cliffs, where they usually spend 

 their summers. 



The late severe weather considered, it is not very probable that 

 these birds should have migrated so early from a tropical region, 

 through all these cutting winds and pinching frosts ; but it is easy 

 to suppose that they may, like bats and flies, have been awakened 

 by the influence of the sun, amidst their secret latebras, where they 



