148 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
in the same box, and thus show the social spirit of their family. 
They often skim over fields, ponds, or rivers, with an exquisite 
grace, but at other times mount to a great height—so far as to 
be wellnigh lost to sight. They are less peaceable than the 
Barn Swallows, and often quarrel in the air at the period of 
mating; but this species is justly regarded, among gil our 
birds, as one of man’s most pleasing companions. 
The White-bellied Swallows are fond of wandering, more so 
than their relatives, and often may be seen two or three miles 
from their homes, now flying across the valleys, now dashing 
above the hills, and now gliding over the water, as if actually 
on its surface. Embodiments of grace, activity, and power, 
they sweep through the air, and show us by their ever varied 
flight how many things have been created to give us pleasure 
from variety alone, as well as from intrinsic beauty. 
(d). Their notes are rather more eccentric and guttural than 
those which I have already mentioned, but are equally full of 
animation. 
IV. COTYLE ‘ ; 
(A) riparia. Bank Swallow. Sand Martin. 
(Locally common throughout New England.) . 
(a). About five inches long. Upper parts, and a band 
across the breast, dull brown. Under parts, white. 
(b). The nest is constructed of a few loose materials, and is 
placed at the bottom of burrows dug out by the birds. These 
excavations are from fifteen to twenty-four inches deep, and are 
made in sand-banks, usually those on the sea-shore or near 
other bodies of water, but sometimes those on the roadsides 
or in other situations. The eggs average ‘68 & °50 of an inch, 
and are white; being almost exactly like those of the White- 
bellied Swallow, though smaller. Two sets of four or five are 
generally laid in the course of the season, of which the first 
appears here in the latter part of May. 
(c). The Bank Swallows are in New England the most 
plainly colored of their family, and the only ones who retain 
here their former habits of nesting. They migrate at the same 
