SAND MARTINS. 275 



a time on the bare ground. The eggs were oblong, dusky, and 

 streaked somewhat in the manner of the plumage of the parent 

 bird, and were equal in size at each end. The dam was sitting 

 on the eggs when found, which contained the rudiments of young, 

 and would have been hatched perhaps in a week. From hence 

 we may see the time of their breeding, which corresponds pretty 

 well with that of the swift, as does also the period of their arrival. 

 Each species is usually seen about the beginning of May. Each 

 breeds but once in a summer ; each lays only two eggs.* 



July 4, 1790. The woman who brought me two fern-owl's 

 eggs last year on July 14, on this day produced me two more, 

 one of which had been laid this morning, as appears plainly, 

 because there was only one in the nest the evening before. They 

 were found, as last July, on the verge of the down above the 

 hermitage under a beechen shrub, on the naked ground. Last 

 year those eggs were full of young, and just ready to be hatched. 



These circumstances point out the exact time when these 

 curious nocturnal migratory birds lay their eggs and hatch their 

 young. Fern-owls, like snipes, stone curlews, and some other 

 birds, make no nest. Birds that build on the ground do not 

 make much of nests. f 



SAND MARTINS. 



MARCH 23, 1788. A gentleman, who was this week on a visit 

 at Waverly, 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 



* The swift often lays three, and sometimes four eggs. ED 



t No author that 1 am acquainted with has giveu so accurate and pleasing an account of the 

 manners and habits of the goat-sucker as Mr. White, taken entirely from his own observations. 

 Its being a nocturnal bird, has prevented my having many opportunities of observing it. I suspect 

 that it passes the day in concealment amidst the dark and shady gloom of deep-wooded dells, or 

 as they are called here gills, having more than once seen it roused from such solitary places by 

 my dogs, when shooting in the day-time. I have also sometimes seen it in an evening, but not 

 long enough to take notice of its habits and manners. 1 have never seen it but in the summer, 

 between the months of May and September. MAKKWICK.* 



* This bird I have many times noticed during the day-time, sitting on lichened fences, nearly 

 of its own colour, and even hedges, but generally in shady situations. It will allow of a close 

 approach, and more than once I have advanced so near that I could have easily knocked it down 

 with a stick, before I could convince myself that it was not a mere lump of mouldiness ; when 

 disturbed, it flits away, with an easy buoyant flight, to the shelter generally of some contiguous 

 fern-covert. ED. 



