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tages that are fcattered about in that The 
only inftance, I ever remember, where this fpecies haunts 
any building, is at the town of Biihop’s Waltham in this 
county, where many fand-martins neftle and breed in the 
fcafFoid-holes of the back-wall of william of wick- 
ham’s ilables; but then this wall hands in a very fe- 
queftered and retired enclofure, and faces upon a large 
and beautiful lake. And indeed this fpecies feems fo to 
delight in large waters, that no inhance occurs of their 
abounding but near vaft pools or rivers ; and in particu- 
lar, it has been remarked, that they fwarm on the banks 
of the Thames, in fome places below bridge. It is 
curious to obferve with what different degrees of archi- 
tectonic fkill Providence has endowed birds of the fame 
genus ^ and ib nearly correfppndent in their general mode 
of life! For while the fwallow and the houfe-martin 
difcover the greateft addrefs in railing and fecurely fix- 
ing crufts or ftiells of loam as cunabula for their young, 
the bank-martin terebrates a round and regular hole in 
the fand or earth, which is ferpentine, horizontal, and 
about two feet deep. At the inner end of this burrow 
does this bird depofit, in a good degree of fafety, her rude 
neft, confifting of fine grafles and feathers, ufually goofb 
feathers, very inartificially laid together. Perfeverance 
will accomplifh any thing ; though one would at firft be 
difinclined to believe, that this weak bird, with her foft 
and tender bill and claws, fhould ever be able to bore the 
ftubborn fand-bank without entirely difabling herfelf. 
Yet with thefe feeble inftrumeiits have I feen a pair of 
P P 2 them 
