18 



BANK SWALLOW. 



young. — Temm. Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 429. — Uferschwalbe, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 

 3. p. 922.— Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 278.— Frisch, t. 18. f. 2. A.— Sand 

 Martin, Br. Zool. 1. No. 170.— Arct. Zool. 2. No. 332.— Albin, 2. t. 56. 

 6.—Lewin's Br. Birds, t. 125.— Lath. Syn. 4. p. 568. 10.— Will. (Ang.) p. 

 213. t. 39.— Mont. Orn. Diet.— Wale. Syn. 2. t. 253.— Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 

 13.— Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. p. 258.— Low's Fau. Oread, p. 74.— Shaiv's Zool. 

 10. p. 104. pi. 11.— Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 61.— Lath. Gen. Hist. 7. p. 263.— 

 River Swallow, Griffith's Cuvier. — Selby, pi. 42. fig. 3. pt. 1. p. 131. 



Provincial. — Sand Martin. Bank Martin. Sandy Bank. Sand Swallow. 



This is the smallest species of British swallow ; length four inches 

 and three quarters. The whole upper parts of the plumage are of a 

 mouse-coloured brown ; the under parts white, except across the breast, 

 which is brown ; legs dusky, a little feathered behind ; bill dusky ; 

 irides hazel. 



The Bank Swallow is not near so plentiful, and is more local than 

 the other species. 



It visits England about the same time as the chimney swallow, re- 

 sorting only to such places as are convenient for breeding ; is frequently 

 seen about rivers, where it makes a nest in the banks, but most com- 

 monly in sand-pits, where it can, with more ease, excavate the sand in 

 order to form a secure place for its nest. The holes are generally 

 horizontal, and their depth two or three feet. * Whoever looks at the 

 bill and claws of this bird cannot fail to be convinced that, so far from 

 being " soft and tender," as White of Selborne alleges, 1 they are 

 more than commonly hard and sharp, and admirably adapted for digging. 

 The bill, I admit, is small, but its very shortness adds to its strength, 

 as it suddenly tapers to a point like a sailor's marlin spike, or rather 

 like the points of a pair of fine compasses when shut. If I compare 

 this little sharp borer, as I may well call it, with the caliper-like mandi- 

 bles of the sand-wasps, (Sphecidee, Leach,) and of the burrowing bee, 

 which, like our swallows, excavate galleries proportionable to their 

 size in hard sand, 2 I am compelled to confess that this bird is fur- 

 nished with the more efficient instrument. Its operation also is con- 

 siderably different. The insects alluded to gnaw into the sand, or 

 rather bite off a portion of it and carry it out of the hole in their 

 mouths ; but the Bank Swallow, as we have had an opportunity of ob- 

 serving, works with its bill shut. 



I have seen one of these swallows cling, with its sharp claws, to the 

 face of a sand bank, and peg in its bill, as a miner would do his pick- 

 axe, till it had loosened a considerable portion of the hard sand, and 

 tumbled it down amongst the rubbish below. In these preliminary 



1 Nat. Hist, of Selborne, i. 299, edit. 1825. 



2 See Insect Architecture. Chap. ii. &c. 



