304 NATURAL HISTORY 



see, haunt the skirts of London, frequent- 

 ing the dirty pools in Saint George^ s- Fields, 

 and about White-Chapel. The question is 

 where these build, since there are no banks 

 or bold shores in that neighbourhood : per- 

 haps they nestle in the scaffold holes of 

 some old or new deserted building. They 

 dip and wash as they fly sometimes, like 

 the house-martin and swallow. 



Sand-martins differ from their congeners 

 in the diminutiveness of their size, and in 

 their colour, which is what is usually called 

 a mouse-colour. Near Valencia in Spain, 

 they are taken, says Willughhy, and sold 

 in the markets for the table ; and are called 

 by the country people, probably from their 

 desultory jerking manner of flight, Papillon 

 de Montagna, 



