[ 275 3 
they happen to breed near hedges and enciofnres, they 
are difpolTeffed of their breeding holes -by the honfe- 
fparrow, which is on the fame account a fell adverfary to 
houfe-martiiis. The following circumftance fLionld 
by no means be omitted, that thefe birds do not make 
nfe of thefe caverns by way of hybernacula^ as might be 
expected ; fince banks fo perforated have been dug ont 
with care in the winter, when nothing was found but 
empty nefts. The fand-martin arrives much about 
the fame time with the fwallow, and lays, as die does, 
from four to fix white eggs. But as this fpecies is cryp- 
togame^ carrying on the bufinefs of nidification, incuba- 
tion, and the fupport of its young, in the dark, it would 
not be" fo eafy to afcertain the time of breeding, were it 
not for the coming forth of the broods, which appear 
much about the time, or rather fomewhat earlier than 
thofe of the fwallow. The neftlings are fupported in 
common like thofe of the congeners^ with gnats and 
other fmall infects ; and fometimes they are fed with //- 
bellul(2 (dragon-flies) almofi: as long as themfelves. The 
laft week in June, we have feen a row of thefe fitting on 
a rail near a great pool, as perchers, and fo young and 
helplefs, as eafily to be taken by hand ; but whether the 
dams ever feed them on the wing, as fwallows and houfe- 
martins do, we have never yet been able to determine ; 
nor do we know whether they purfue and attack birds 
of prey. Thefe hirundines are no fongfters, but rather 
mute, making only a little harfii noifewTen a perfon ap- 
proaches their nefts. They feem not to be of a focial}ie 
turn^ 
