SAND-MARTINS. 203 



like those of their congeners, with gnats and other 

 small insects, and sometimes they are fed with 

 libellulte, (dragon-flies,) almost as long as them- 

 selves. 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 deter- 

 mine ; 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. 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 on the whole, in the south 

 of England at least, is this much the rarest spe- 

 cies ; for there are few towns or large villages 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 sequestered life 

 among some abrupt sand-hills, and in the banks 

 of some few rivers. 



These birds have a peculiar manner of flying, 

 flitting about with odd jerks and vacillations, not 

 unlike the motions of a butterfly. Doubtless 



