THE SAND-MAKTIN. 405 



mass of waters, or flying above the ocean's waves. They breed at 

 each extremity of this bay in miserable situations, burrowing at 

 the one side, in a narrow belt of loose clay, above basaltic cliffs, 

 the bases of which are accessible at low water ; in the other, in 

 hard clayey sand between stones, in the face of a gravelly and 

 stony bank rising about ten feet above the beach : I never heard 

 the species so noisy as when in the vicinity of this burrow. Their 

 partiality to water or to the insects about it, seemed very evident 

 here, as I have remarked all within view sweeping over the waves 

 of the sea or the surface of the river, when various species of 

 insects were abundant above the land. About a similar locality, 

 the sandy bay west of Portrush, in this quarter, I likewise 

 noticed sand-martins, and have no doubt that they breed there. 

 Of the seven colonies of sand-martins already noticed in the 

 county of Antrim, five are contiguous to water, to which I con- 

 sider the species partial, although, to use the words of Mr. Mac- 

 gillivray, they " take up their abode in situations favourable to 

 mining, whether there be water near them or not." 



These birds are so widely distributed over Ireland in situations 

 similar to those described, that it is needless to particularize other 

 localities. The bridge of Errif, in the county of Mayo, between 

 Westport and Glenaan, shall alone be named, on account of the 

 combined picturesqueness and grandeur of its scenery. They 

 came under my notice there, on the 26th of July, 1840. 



Departure. On the 18th of September, 1832, no sand-martins 

 appeared at the Malone sand-pit. The whole colony, excepting a 

 very few birds, were said to have taken their departure about a 

 fortnight before that time. On the 1st of October, 1833, I was 

 informed, that they had departed ten or twelve days previously. 

 In both of those years, after the great body of these birds had 

 migrated, I remarked a single individual, in one instance asso- 

 ciated with the swallow, and in another, with the house-martin 

 and that species together : in both cases remote from their bur- 

 rows. They alighted on houses and trees along with their con- 

 geners, as well as accompanied them in flight. In neither year were 

 these sand-martins seen after the other species were gone ; hence it 



