240 hiehndinid^. 



Cotile has the nostrils overhung by a membrane as in Hirundo ; its peculiarities are 

 in the greater proportional length of the lateral claws and in the distal end of the 

 tarso-metatarsus being furnished with a tuft of feathers. 



The range of CofMe is almost cosmopolitan ; and no land-bird is so widely spread as 

 C. riparia. 



1. Cotile riparia. 



Hirundo riparia, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 344 ' ; Jones, Nat. Berm. p. 34 \ 



Cotyle riparia, Cab. J. f. Orn. 1861, p. 93'; March, Pr. Ac. PMl. 1863, p. 296* ; Baird, Rev. Am, 

 B. i. p. 319 ' ; Salv. Ibis, 1866, p. 193 " ; Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ix. p. 96 ' ; BuU. U.S. Nat. 

 Mus. no. 4, p. 17"; Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 271"; v. Prantzius, J. f. Orn. 1869, 

 p. 295 "; Pelz. Orn. Bras. p. 18"; Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1873, p. 258''; Baird, Brew. & 

 Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 353"; Cones, B. Col. Vail. i. p. 435"; Gundl. Orn. Cnb. p. 83''; 

 Dresser, B. Eur. iii. p. 505, t. 163 ''. 



Supra murina, uropygio paulo dilutiore secundaiiorum apioibus tenuissime albis ; subtus alba, torque pectorali 

 murino; rostroetpedibusnigris. Long, tota 4*7, ate 4*0, caudsB 2*0, rostri a riotu 0-5, tarsi 0-4. (Descr. 

 exempl. ex DueSas, Guatemala. Mus. nostr.) 



Eab. NoETH America generally ^ i^, Bermuda ^. — Mexico, Tehuantepec [Sumichrast ^ ^) ; 

 Guatemala, Duenas, Yzabal {0. S. & F. D. G.^) ; Costa Eica {v. Frantzius ^ ^ i°). — 

 Antilles, Cuba i^, Jamaica * ; South America, Amazons valley ^^, Guiana, Brazil ^^ ; 

 Europe 1; Asia; Africa. 



The Sand-Martin of the American Continent is admitted by all writers to be in- 

 separable from the familiar species of the Old World. In the United States it is a 

 summer visitant for the purpose of breeding. As winter approaches it passes south- 

 wards, and has been observed in Guatemala and Costa Rica and in some of the Antilles 

 at that season ; but it is nowhere common. Nor does it appear in any numbers in 

 South America. Natterer only obtained a single specimen in the Brazilian province of 

 Mato Grosso, Bartlett a few near Nauta on the upper Amazons ; and quite recently 

 Mr. H. Whitely has sent us a specimen from Bartica Grove in British Guiana. In the 

 Antilles its presence has been but seldom noticed ; for Dr. Gundlach only once met with 

 it, in the spring of 1843, when he shot a few individuals which were associating with 

 numbers of Tachycineta bicblor. In Mexico it has only been seen near Tehuantepec, 

 and in Guatemala only near Duenas and on the shores of the Lake of Yzabal. In 

 Costa Eica, Dr. von Frantzius speaks of its breeding in numbers in holes in rocks ; but 

 we think he must refer to one of the species of Stelgidcypteryx i". A single specimen 

 only was sent by him and his associates to the Berlin Museum 3. 



The breeding-habits of Cotile riparia are too well known to need restating here, 

 beyond the fact that a hole burrowed in a sandy bank forms its nest, and that it lays 

 white eggs. 



