THE SAND-MARTIN. 
405 
mass of waters, or flying above the ocean's waves. They breed at 
each extremity of this bay in miserable situations, burrowing at 
the one side, in a narrow belt of loose clay, above basaltic cliffs, 
the bases of which are accessible at low water ; in the other, in 
hard clayey sand between stones, in the face of a gravelly and 
stony bank rising about ten feet above the beach : I never heard 
the species so noisy as when in the vicinity of this burrow. Their 
partiality to water or to the insects about it, seemed very evident 
here, as I have remarked all within view sweeping over the waves 
of the sea or the surface of the river, when various species of 
insects were abundant above the land. About a similar locality, 
the sandy bay west of Portrusli, in this quarter, I likewise 
noticed sand-martins, and have no doubt that they breed there. 
Of the seven colonies of sand-martins already noticed in the 
county of Antrim, five are contiguous to water, to which I con- 
sider the species partial, although, to use the words of Mr. Mac- 
gillivray, they “ take up their abode in situations favourable to 
mining, whether there be water near them or not." 
These birds are so widely distributed over Ireland in situations 
similar to those described, that it is needless to particularize other 
localities. The bridge of Errif, in the county of Mayo, between 
Westport and Glenaan, shall alone be named, on account of the 
combined picturesqueness and grandeur of its scenery. They 
came under my notice there, on the 26th of July, 1840. 
Departure. On the 18th of September, 1832, no sand-martins 
appeared at the Malone sand-pit. The whole colony, excepting a 
very few birds, were said to have taken their departure about a 
fortnight before that time. On the 1st of October, 1833, X was 
informed, that they had departed ten or twelve days previously. 
In both of those years, after the great body of these birds had 
migrated, I remarked a single individual, in one instance asso- 
ciated with the swallow, and in another, with the house-martin 
and that species together : in both cases remote from their bur- 
rows. They alighted on houses and trees along with their con- 
geners, as well as accompanied them in flight. In neither year were 
these sand-martins seen after the other species were gone ; hence it 
