BIRDS. 337 



hatch their young. Fern-owls, like snipes, sfcono curlews 

 and some other birds, make no nest. Birds that build on 

 the ground do not make much of nests. 1 



SAND MARTINS. 



MARC [i 23, 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 win- 

 ter 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 21, 1790. A single bank or sand martin wns seen 

 hovering and playing round the sand pit at Short Heath, 

 where in the summer they abound. 



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

 on Wish-hanger common, between Hedleigh and Frinsham, 

 he saw several bank martins playing in and out, and hang- 

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

 usually nestle. 



This incident confirms my suspicions that this species of 



1 No author that I am acquainted with has given so accurate and 

 pleasing an account of the manners and habits of the goat-sucker as 

 Mr. White, taken entirely from his own observations. Its being a noc- 

 turnal bird, has prevented my having many opportunities of observing 

 it. I suspect that it passes the day in concealment amidst the dark and 

 shady gloom of deep-wooded dells, or as they are called here gills ; 

 having more than once seen it roused from such solitary places by my 

 dogs, when shooting in the daytime. I have also sometimes seen it in 

 an evening, but not long enough to take notice of its habits and man- 

 ners. I have never seen it but in the summer, between the months of 

 May and September. MARKWICK. 



L 



