116 



bas-relief figures of saints, projecting forward in a prominent 

 manner from the surface. 



There, crowded by entire colonies, the martins are ever 

 congregated, giving an air of the ridiculous to the sublimity 

 which invests the workmanship so profusely decorative, by 

 the complication of projecting straw and hay which sets its 

 artistic appearance at nought : for instance, at Notre Dame, 

 where the central figure has the arms outstretched in an at- 

 titude of prayer, three pair of saucy martins, determined to 

 " sleep in the bosom of Abraham," yearly rear their broods 

 in the cavity of the arms. 



At the grand arch of triumph, near the barrier D'Etoile, we 

 see the nests crowding the spaces occupied by the names of 

 Kellerman, Suchet, and Kleber, almost blotting them from 

 view, with the others whose names are inscribed upon it. 



Habitat Northern Africa. 



SPECIES 110 THE SAND MARTIN. 



Hirundo riparia. Linn. 

 Hirondelle de rivage. Temm. 



THE SAND MARTIN, the smallest and plainest coloured of the 

 Hirundinse, is not so widely distributed, or occurs in such num- 

 bers, as the more common species, but it is yet found in con- 

 siderable numbers in such localities as are suited to its habits. 

 The earliest in appearing upon our shores of any of its con- 

 geners, we may occasionally observe a few individuals cheer- 

 lessly skimming over the water-side as early as the end of 

 March, which must appear somewhat strange to the ornitho- 

 logist when we are informed by Degland : " Cette espece 

 arrive dans le nord de la France apres ses congeneres et re- 

 part avant elles."* 



Arriving in flocks, they occupy at once their breeding 

 haunts ; and in places, where for days we had unsuccessfully 

 watched for their coming, on some morning we find, per- 

 haps, some fifty individuals, chitting with all the sangfroid 

 of a swallow, perfectly unconcerned after their long voyage ; 

 they appear as if they had never left the locality (an absurd 

 idea still clung to by the ignorant). 



Differing from all the swallows, the sand martin is the most 

 unsocial of its family in its relations with man, leaving his vici- 

 nity, and taking up its quarters by the loamy side of the sand- 

 pit, or against the face of some abrupt hill-side, which shows 

 exposed some layers of soft sand, suited for its habitation. 



* Ornithologie Europeeime. 



