290 



Passeres.- 



-BIRDS.- 



-HlRtlXDINID.E. 



astonishing." Under tlieso circumstances, it is no 

 wonder that the bird is a universal favourite, and 

 Wilson gives ns a ludicrous account of the only man 

 he ever met with who disliked the martins. " This," 

 he tells us, "was a penurious, close-fisted German, who 

 hated them, because, as he said, ' they eat his peas.' 

 I told him he must certainly be mistaken, as I never 

 knew an instance of martins eating peas ; but he 

 replied with coolness, that he had many times seen 

 them himself ' blaying near the hife, and going scJiiiip 

 schnap,' by which I understood that it was his bees 

 that had been the snft'ercrs ; and the charge could 

 not be denied." In fact, the Purple Martin has 

 the somewhat singular taste of preferiing wasps and 

 bees for his food, and his diet is principally made up of 

 tliese insects and large beetles. Of the latter, Wilson 

 states that he has taken four from the stomach of a 

 Purple Martin, all of them in a perfect state. 



Tlie Purple Martin is about eight inches in length, 

 and the general colour of the plumage in the male is 

 a deep, rich, purplish blue, with the exception of the 

 wings and tail, which are brownish-black. Tlie female 

 is blackish-brown above, with a slight bluish or violet 

 gloss ; the chin and breast are greyish-brown, and the 

 belly whitish. The birds begin to build about two 

 days after their arrival, taking up their residence in 

 any convenient cavity, frequently where no accom- 

 modation is specially prepared for them, taking pos- 

 session of some of the compartments of a pigeon house. 

 The nest, which is rather bulky, is composed of dry 

 leaves, straws, hay, and feathers ; the eggs are four in 

 number, and pui-e white. There are two broods, of 

 which the first (in the middle States) appears in May, 

 and the second late in July. These birds by no 

 means confine themselves to country places, but like 

 the martins of our own country, come freely into the 

 towns and cities, and sweep about boldly even in the 

 most crowded streets. Their flight is exceedingly swift 

 and easy, and they sail much with the wings expanded. 

 They leave the United States for the South about the 

 end of August. The Purple Martin has been recorded 

 as a British bird, on the ground of several specimens 

 liaving been killed at different times in this country ; 

 the most striking instance being that of two specimens 

 shot at Kingsbury in Middlesex, in September, 1842 ; 

 one of which was an old male, and the other a young 

 bird of the year; hence, it would appear that the birds 

 must have bred in this country. 



Several other species of the genus Progne are found 

 in the West Indian islands, and on the continent of 

 South America; most of them have the same habit of 

 building about the abodes of man ; and one of them, 

 which is common in the region of the Rio de Plata and 

 Paraguay, has been described under the name of 

 Progne domcstira. They generally migrate southward 

 in the summer, from the tropical into the more 

 temperate parts of the South American continent, 

 returning to the warm regions at the approach of cold 

 weather. 



THE SAND MARTIN (Cottjle ripnru,), a common 

 British species, belongs to a group in which the feet 

 are very slender and scutellated, tlie bill of moderate 

 size, and slender, and the tail nearly even, or merely 



notched at the extremity. It is a very small species, 

 measuring less than five inches in length; the upper 

 parts are of a miiform light brown coloiu', with the 

 quill feathers of the wings and tail very dark or black- 

 ish-brown ; the lower surface is pure white, with the 

 exception of a brown band, which crosses the upper 

 part of the breast ; the feet and bill are dark brovm ; 

 the wings, when closed, reach a little beyond the end 

 of the tail. 



The Sand Martin, or Bank Martin as it is sometimes 

 called, is very generally distributed over the British 

 islands, but is still rather a local bird, and by no 

 means so abundant as the chimney swallow, or the 

 house martin. It arrives in this country rather earlier 

 than either of those species, having been noticed once 

 or twice before the end of the month of March. It is 

 well known in all |iarts of Europe, ranging as far north 

 as Norway and Sweden; in Asia, it is met with in 

 summer in the more temperate jiarts of Siberia, and it 

 also occurs in India and even in the Philippine Islands, 

 whilst the European specimens retire into Africa like 

 our other swallows. But this species is more cosmo- 

 polite than any of the preceding, for it inhabits both 

 hemispheres, migi'ating from central and tropical 

 America, to the northward, as far even as the C8th 

 degree of latitude. Wherever it occurs, its habits are 

 the same ; it frequents the banks of rivers, the sides of 

 sand-pits, and similar places, where a peipendicnlar 

 bank of soft earth affords it the opportunity of burrow- 

 ing without much difficulty. In these .situations it 

 scoops out the earth to a depth of about two feet in a 

 horizontal direction, forming a beautifully regular 

 cylindrical tunnel — a labour wliich, considering that its 

 bill and feet are the only tools whieli it has to work 

 with, is certainly most surprising. In its mining opera- 

 tions, the bird clings with its feet to the suiface of the 

 sand or earth, in every possible jiosition, and uses its 

 little hill as a pickaxe in digging, as vigorously as the 

 most experienced navigator. The inner extremity of 

 the burrow is usually more or less crooked, and here 

 a bed is prepared for the reception of the eggs, by 

 the accumulation of a little loose hay and a few soft 

 feathers. In a suitable situation, gi-eat numbers of 

 these little galleries are excavated side by side, 

 and the birds may be seen constantly going in and 

 out of the holes. The eggs are from four to six in 

 mmiber, and pure white. The habits of the Sand 

 Martin, in all other respects, are similar to those of the 

 swallows in general ; like the preceding species these 

 birds skim through the air with great ease and celerity, 

 in pursuit of the insects on which they and their 

 ymmg are fed ; and like them they are fond of the 

 neighbourhood of water, into which they dip when on 

 the wing, both to drink and wash themselves. 

 According to White, the young are sometimes fed 

 with dragon flies almost as long as themselves, and 

 on leaving the nest they are to be seen perched in 

 a row upon a rail. 



THE CRAG SWALLOW (Cotyle rvpeslris), which is 

 neaily allied to our sand martin, is an inhabitant of 

 the southern parts of Europe and Asia, and of the 

 north of Africa ; its migrations being less extensive 

 than those of the English species. The general colour 



