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1)y forming- a small hole with their bills as they cling to the surface of the bank, some- 

 times with heads downwards. As this hole increases in size, they stand in the excavation, 

 and throw out all the loose sand or chalk with their feet, boring away at times as much 

 as four feet into the solid bank, but at others only two or three feet. In some cases a 

 single pair of birds make two or three holes before they are suited. Occasionally a large 

 boulder stops the way ; or perhaps the sand is too hard or too soft ; whilst many holes 

 are abandoned at a depth of a few inches for no apparent cause whatever. The birds 

 seem well aware of the principles of drainage, and provide for it by making their holes 

 slant slightly upwards. The holes vary considerably in size and shape ; some will run 

 almost straight, others turn to the right or left, not in acute angles, but seemingly 

 by accident, or to avoid obstructions in their way. Sometimes the holes are perfectly 

 round, at others they will be rectangular, and often oval, and are usually two or three 

 inches in diameter. The end of the hole is widened and hollowed into a kind of 

 chamber, about sis inches in diameter ; and here the nest is formed. It is usually 

 very slight — a mere bed of dry grass, coarse twitch, a few straws, and lined with one 

 or two large feathers. The eggs of the Sand-Martin are from four to six in number. 

 They are scarcely so polished as the eggs of the House-Martin, but are as pure a white, 

 and vary in length from '76 to '62 inch, and in breadth from -51 to '46 inch. 



" Early in June or late in May, in favourable seasons, is the time to collect fresh 

 eggs of this bird ; but many Sand-Martins have a second brood, which are rarely on the 

 wing before the middle of August. Some of the colonies of these birds consist of 

 enormous numbers, and on the front of the cliffs where they breed they have all the 

 appearance of bees in the process of swarming. On the banks of the Danube, the Volga, 

 and the great Siberian rivers, the numbers are sometimes almost incredible. One of 

 these colonics is a most animating sight ; the air is full of birds coming and going, and 

 in front of the nests the crowd is so great that it is difficult to understand how each bird 

 can thread the labyrinth. The Sand-Martin is almost as nimble on the wing as the 

 Swallow, perhaps more so than the House-Martin ; and, like both these birds, it often 

 dips for a moment in the water as it skims over the surface to drink or to bathe. Now and 

 then the birds cling to the face of the cliff, and the nearly fledged young often sit at the 

 mouth of the hole to be fed by their parents. Sand-Martins are bold in defending their 

 colony from intruders ; and I have seen them leave the bank in a body to drive away a 

 Merlin, which they pursued with great pertinacity." 



In America some excellent accounts of the Sand-Martin's habits have also been 

 published, but they agree almost entirely witli those of European naturalists. 

 Mr. Maynard writes as follows : — " These are the last of all the Swallows to make 

 their appearance in New England, arriving about the middle of May. They then quickly 

 repair to fome sandy bank and begin to dig burrows in which to place their nests. They 

 excavate the lioles with their feet, aided by their bills, and although these members are 

 seemingly weak the birds manage to get on quite rapidly, often penetrating a bank to 

 the depth of three or four feet in a few days. These birds are highly gregarious, and 

 from five hundred to a thousand pairs may be found breeding in a favourable locality. 

 They are quite numerous in the interior, but seem to have a predilection for the coast, 



