254 HIRUNDINID^E. 



The eggs are from four to six in number; white, 

 like those of the House Martin, but smaller, measuring 

 only eight lines in length, by six lines in breadth. The 

 Sand Martins are sociable birds, building in company close 

 to each other ; and in some favourable localities the exter- 

 nal apertures to their retreats, which are all that can 

 be seen of their domicile, are very numerous, so much so 

 that the surface of the bank appears perforated like a 

 honey-comb. "The nestlings," says White, "are sup- 

 ported, in common like those of their congeners, with 

 gnats, and other small insects ; and sometimes they are 

 fed with LibellultE (dragon-flies) almost as long as them- 

 selves. In the last week in June we have seen a row of 

 these sitting on a rail near a 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.*" When on the wing in search of food they 

 skim low over meadows and commons ; they also drink, 

 sip, and wash as they fly, sometimes, as the House- Martin 

 and the Swallow. The young, when they have entirely 

 left the nest to make room for the second brood, roost in 

 numbers among the osiers which grow on the small islands, 

 and on the banks of rivers. " The Sand Martin, I be- 

 lieve," says Mr. Blackwall, " has never been suspected of 

 forsaking its progeny ; yet that it sometimes does abandon 

 them I have clearly ascertained, by repeated inspections of 

 the nests of that species during the winter months." 



The Sand Martin is generally, but locally, distributed 

 over the British Islands. Mr. Thompson of Belfast says 

 it is a regular summer visiter to Ireland, but is not so 

 numerous as the Swallow or the House Martin. It visits 

 also the Orkneys and Shetland. Miiller includes it as a 



