192 BANK SWALLOW OR SAND MARTIN. 



same manner as Woodpeckers; and few ornithological occupations have 

 proved more pleasing to me than that of watching several hundred pairs of 

 these winged artificers all busily and equally engaged, some in digging the 

 burrows, others in obtaining food, which they would now and then bring in 

 their bills for the use of their mates, or in procuring bits of dry grass or large 

 feathers of the duck or goose, for the construction of their nests. 



So industrious are the little creatures that I have known a hole dug to the 

 depth of three feet four inches, and the nest finished, in four days, the first 

 egg being deposited on the morning of the fifth. It sometimes happens that 

 soon after the excavation has been commenced, some obstruction presents 

 itself, defying the utmost exertions of the birds; in which case they abandon 

 the spot, and begin elsewhere in the neighbourhood. If these obstructions 

 occur and are pretty general, the colony leave the place; and it is very 

 seldom that, after such an occurrence, any Swallows of this species are seen 

 near it. I have sometimes been surprised to see them bore in extremely 

 loose sand. On the sea-coast, where soft banks are frequent, you might sup- 

 pose that, as the burrows are only a few inches apart, the sand might fall in 

 so as to obstruct the holes and suffocate their inmates; but I have not met 

 with an instance of such a calamitous occurrence. Along the banks of small 

 rivulets, I have found these birds having nests within a foot or two of the 

 water, having been bored among the roots of some large trees, where I 

 thought they were exposed to mice, rats, or other small predaceous animals. 

 The nest is generally formed of some short bits of dry grass, and lined with 

 a considerable number of large feathers. They lay from five to seven eggs 

 for the first brood, fewer for the next. They are of an ovate, somewhat 

 pointed form, pure white, eight-twelfths of an inch long, and six-twelfths in 

 breadth. 



The young, as soon as they are able to move with ease, often crawl to the 

 entrance of the hole, to wait the return of their parents with food. On such 

 occasions they are often closely watched by the smaller Hawks, as well as 

 the common Crows, which seize and devour them, in spite of the clamour of 

 the old birds. These depredations upon the young are in fact continued 

 after they have left the nest, and while they are perched on the dry twigs 

 of the low trees in the neighbourhood, until they are perfectly able to main- 

 tain themselves on wing without the assistance of their parents. 



In Louisiana, or in any district where this species raises more than one 

 brood in the season, the males, I believe, take the principal charge of the 

 young that have left the nest, though both sexes alternately incubate, all their 

 moments being thus rendered full of care and anxiety respecting both their 

 offspring and the sitting bird. The young acquire the full brown plumage 

 of the adult by the first spring, when there is no observable difference be- 



