116 THE SAND MARTIN. 
shrubs, especially the pine buds. Its meat is very white and 
tender, affording the most delicate food for the traveller. 
For tenderness and fineness of fibre, the meat of this hare 
not only differs from, but surpasses all others of the West. 
It holds a similar position among the hares that the Dusky 
Grouse does among the Western Grouse; both have white 
and very delicate meat, and prefer to obtain their food from 
the pine shrubs. 
Descending the western slope of the mountains into the 
valley of the Snake Fork, we were again surrounded with 
all the indications of spring. The trees were clothed with 
fresh green foliage, and myriads of flowers were in bloom, 
and all signs of winter had passed away. In the course of a 
single day one may ascend to the region of perpetual snow, 
and descend again to that of spring and summer. 
ipis ad) 

THE SAND MARTIN. 
BY AUGUSTUS FOWLER. , 

THe Sand Martins (Hirundo riparia) visit their accus- 
tomed breeding-places in Essex County, Massachusetts, 
usually the first week in May, in companies sometimes to 
the number of fifty pairs. They select the bank of some — 
river, or the sides of any large excavation, in which they — 
dig a hole from one to three feet below the surface of the 
ground in a straight, horizontal direction. The holes are 
usually from two to three feet in length, and often within 2 
few inches of each other; the entrance and passage-way t9 | 
the nest being of an elliptic form. They prefer the most - 
perpendieular banks, with a stratum of sandy loam below . 
the soil. They live together in the most social manner, and | | 
unlike the White-bellied Swallow (Hirundo bicolor) are sel- | 
dom seen to quarrel with each other. If at any time one of 
them should, in digging his hole, intrude upon the passage f 



