330 OBSERVATIONS ON 



Hanger, to the left of the hermitage, under a beechen shrub. 

 This person, who lives just at the foot of the Hanger, seems well 

 acquainted with these nocturnal swallows, and says she has often 

 found their eggs near that place, and that they lay only two at 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, 1 790. 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 hermi- 

 tage, 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. 



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 ser- 

 pentine, 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 as little success. 



These holes were in depth about two feet. 



