200 NATURAL HISTORY 



irritans 1 ) , swarming at the mouths of these holes, like bees 

 011 the stools of their hives. 



The following circumstance should by no means be 

 omitted that these birds do not make use of their caverns 

 by way of hybernacula, as might be expected ; since banks 

 so perforated have been dug out with care in the winter, 

 when nothing was found but empty nests. 



The sand martin arrives much about the same time with 

 the swallow, and lays, as she does, from four to six white 

 eggs. But as this species is cryptogame, carrying on the 

 business of nidification, incubation, and the support of its 

 young in the dark, it would not be so easy to ascertain the 

 time of breeding, were it not for the coming forth of the 

 broods, which appear much about the time, or rather some- 

 what earlier than those of the swallow The nestlings are 

 supported, in common like those of their congeners, with 

 gnats and other small insects ; and sometimes they are fed 

 with LibelluloB (dragon- flies) almost as long as themselves. 

 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 determine ; 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 congregating with their congeners in the autumn. 

 Undoubtedly they breed a second time, like the house mar- 

 tin and swallow ; and withdraw about Michaelmas. 



1 The flea of the sand martin, although so similar to the bed flea as to 

 be scarcely distinguishable from it, is really distinct. It appears even 

 to be distinct from the flea of the swallow, Pulex Mrundinis (Stephens), 

 and has been described as P. bifasciatus (Curtis). ED. 



