400 hirundinidjE. 



Peace, its " cradle " being supported on the sculptured leaves 

 adorning the ceiling of the gateway. This notice, compared with 

 that of the swallow, as seen during the same tour, shows that as 

 in our own northern climate, the H. rustica is much more gene- 

 rally distributed than the H. urbica. 



The most complete history of this species, as observed in the 

 British islands, appears in the third volume of Macgillivray's 

 British Birds, where the author and his contributors, Mr. Hep- 

 burn and Mr. Weir, treat very fully of it from personal observa- 

 tion ; the two latter gentlemen having watched the progress of nest- 

 building, frequency of feeding young, &c, with the most praise- 

 worthy and extraordinary patience. 



THE SAND-MARTIN. 



Hirundo riparia, Linn. 



Is a regular summer visitaut. 



As the swallow is much more abundant than the house-martin in 

 Ireland, so again is this bird considerably more numerous than 

 the sand-martin. Owing to the nature of its haunts, it is in all 

 countries a local species. It resorts to suitable places in all 

 quarters of this island. 



The sand-martin arrives the earliest of the Hirundinidce in the 

 north of Ireland, appearing occasionally at the latter end of the 

 month of March. In 1828, several were observed in a moun- 

 tainous situation, near Belfast, on the 29th of that month, and 

 when pointed out to the respectable farmer, at whose place they 

 appeared, he assured us they had been seen there about a week 

 before that time. In the very late spring of 1836, they did not 

 appear until a month after the usual period, and very few even 

 then. The dates of their arrival in the neighbourhood of Belfast, 

 in the last few years, are: — in 1842, (a remarkably late season) 

 the 25th of April, when they at once appeared in numbers at 

 their chief haunt, about forty being on wing over one part of 

 the sand-pit, and thirty over another : on the 23rd of April, 

 there was not one, so that the whole colony appeared to have 



