HISTORY OF THE MARTIN. 169 



The following circumstance should by no means be omitted 

 that these birds do not make use of their caverns by way of 

 hybernacula, 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 nidifi- 

 cation, 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 con- 

 geners, with gnats and other small insects ; and sometimes they 

 are fed with libellulce (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. f 

 They seem not to be of a sociable turn, never with us congre- 

 gating 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 in the whole, in the south of England at least, is this 

 much the rarest species. For there are few towns or large vil- 

 lages 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 seques- 

 tered life among some abrupt sand-hills, and in the banks of 

 some few rivers. 



* They do so quite as briskly as the other species. ED. 



t They have also a faint weak chirp, occasionally repeated as they fly. ED. 



