SAND MAETI3T. 159 



end, wliere a little hay or wool, or a few small feathers are 

 placed, on which the eggs are laid; the loose sand having all 

 been lightly removed from the surface, as the bird has worked 

 on, with its feet. The 'excavators' complete their work, though 

 they are such 'feeble folk,' in about a fortnight. The same 

 hole is resorted to from year to year, or, if it has fallen away, 

 another is hollowed out in the same neighbourhood. The 

 weight of sand mined in a day is from sixteen to twenty 

 ounces, and pebbles of even more than two ounces in weight 

 have been known to be removed. 



The eggs are from four to six in number, and white. They 

 are very tender, and are hatched after an incubation of twelve 

 or thirteen days. 



Male; length, four inches and three quarters: Meyer says 

 from five and a quarter to five and a half; bill, dark brown, 

 or nearly black, and very small and weak; iris, dark brown; 

 head, crown, neck, and nape, light brown; chin, throat, and 

 breast, white, the latter having a band of light brown, with 

 a few spots of the same below it, across its upper part, and 

 light brown also on the sides; back, light brown. The wings 

 reach beyond the end of the tail, and expand one foot in 

 width; the first feather is the longest, the others gradually 

 shortening in succession ; greater and lesser wing coverts, 

 brown; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dark brown, almost 

 blackish, underneath lighter; greater and lesser under wing 

 coverts, light brown. Tail, forked, dark brown, almost blackish, 

 underneath it is lighter; upper tail coverts, lighter brown 

 than the back; under tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, 

 dark reddish black or brown, and scaled; there are a few 

 buff white feathers just above the junction of the hind too 

 to the leg; claws, dark brown. 



In summer the plumage loses its gloss. 



The female closely resembles the male. 



The young birds have the chin buff white, the throat dashed 

 with brown and rufous, and often spotted with grey, and the 

 feathers of the head, back, wing coverts, and tertiaries, tipped 

 with the same buff white. This is sometimes separated from 

 the ground colour by a darker band; the legs are paler than 

 in the' adult, and without the tuft of feathers behind the 

 hind toe. 



Varieties have occasionally occurred white, and yellowish 

 white. 



