306 Hirundinidce. 



117. SAND MARTIN (Hirundo riparia). 



This little sober-coloured bird, dusky brown above, and dull 

 white beneath, receives its names of * Sand Martin,' and ' Bank 

 Swallow,' and ' Quar Martin,' from its tendency to make its nest 

 in holes in the banks of rivers, on the abrupt sandbank of a deep 

 road-cutting, or the perpendicular side of a quarry ; in short, the 

 steep face of any cliff will answer the purpose, provided only the 

 soil be soft and sandy enough to allow of excavation to the 

 depth of two or three feet ; and in some favoured spots, several of 

 which exist in Wiltshire, the sandbanks which these birds 

 frequent are completely riddled with their holes for a considerable 

 space. So well known for ages has this habit been, that Pliny 

 the elder, in his great work on Natural History, applied the term 

 'riparia' to the Sand-Martin 1800 years ago, and it has enjoyed 

 the appellation ever since. In Spain, where it is sold in the 

 market for the table, it is called, by the country people, probably 

 from its desultory jerking manner of flight, Papilion di 

 Montayna, 'Mountain butterfly.' Many Ornithologists of modern 

 date divide this species from the Swallows and Martins, and give 

 it the generic name of Cot He, derived from the Greek *omXa?, a 

 ' twitterer' or 'prattler,' and having reference to the continued 

 babbling or chattering in which these little birds indulge, when 

 they assemble in the autumn in countless numbers to roost in 

 the reed-beds, after the manrer of starlings. In France it is 

 Hirondelle de rivage ; in Germany, Ufer-schu-albe ; in Italy, 

 Eondine riparia ; and in Sweden, Strand-svala all of which are 

 mere translations of the specific riparia. It arrives a few days 

 earlier than any of its congeners, and may be met with in its 

 favourite haunts about the second week in April, sometimes even 

 so early as the last week in March ; but as it is one of the first to 

 arrive, so it is the earliest to depart, for by the end of August or 

 very early in September the great body of these birds is gone, and 

 before the end of the latter month not" a straggler remains behind. 

 It differs from the Martin in its inferior size, and browner upper 

 plumage; the beak, though small and short, is very hard and 



