326 OBSER VA TIONS ON BIRDS. 



enough to take notice of its habits and manners. I have 

 never seen it but in the summer, between the months of 

 May and September. — Markwick. 



SAND-MARTINS. 



March 23rd, 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 serpentine, 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. 



March 21st, 1790. A single bank or sand-martin was 

 seen hovering and playing round the sand-pit at Short 

 Heath, where in the summer they abound. 



April 9th, 1793. A sober hind assures us, that this day, 

 on Wishhanger common, between Hedleigh and Frinsham, 

 he saw several bank martins playing in and out, and 

 hanging before some nest-holes in a sand-hill, where these 

 birds usually nestle. 



The incident confirms my suspicions, that this species of 

 hirundo is to be seen first of any ; and gives great reason to 

 suppose that they do not leave their wild haunts at all, but 

 are secreted amidst the clefts and caverns of those abrupt 

 clifis, where they usually spend their summers. 



