radius of the circle. It docs tiot trace this out, as we should do, by fixing- a point for the centre, around 
wdiich to draw the circumference ; on the contrary, it perches on the circumference with its claws, and 
woiks with its bill from the centre outwards ; and hence it is that in the numerous excavations recently 
commenced, which we have examined, we have uniformly found the termination funnel-shaped, the centre 
being always much more scooped out than the circumference. The bird consequently assumes all positions 
Avhile at work in the interior, hanging from the roof of the gallery with its back downwards, as often as 
standing upon the floor. We have more than once. Indeed, seen a Bank-Martin wheeling slowly round in 
this mannei on the face of a sand-bank, when it was just breaking ground to begin its gallery. All the 
galleries are found to be more or less tortuous to their termination, which is at the depth of from two 
to thiee feet, where a bed of loose hay and a few of the smaller breast-feathers of geese, ducks, or fowls 
is spread with little art for the reception of the eggs. It may not be unimportant to remark, also, that 
it always sciapes out with its feet the sand detached by the bill; but so carefully is this performed, that it 
never scratches up the unmined sand, or disturbs the plane of the floor, which rather slopes upwards, and 
of course the lodgment of rain is thereby prevented.” 
A nest taken from a bank of the Thames, on the 4th of July 1854, was composed of a layer of grasses, 
above which was a second layer of the Swan’s breast-feathers, so placed as to curl over the eggs, the 
appearance forcibly reminding one of the calyx of a tulip or white water-lily ; although the hole was damp, 
the platform of grasses and feathers formed a warm and dry receptacle for the eggs, which were of a pearly 
white, and six in number. It is supposed that the Sand-Martin only rears one hrood in each year, but I 
think it sometimes goes to nest a second time. 
This species, like the other members of the family, is very much infested with parasites, respecting which 
the following note has been kindly transmitted to me by Signor Henry Giglioli, a gentleman of Pavia, at 
present residing in ,this country for the prosecution of his scientific studies : — “ In at least twenty nests 
of the Sand-Martin {Cotyle riparid^ which I examined at the beginning of July, in Surrey, I found all of 
them infested with parasites, some living on the young birds, and others on the materials of which the 
nest was formed. These parasites were so numerous that the eggs, as soon as laid, were literally covered 
with their excrements, giving them a spotted appearance. What strikes me as strange in the matter is, that 
I have observed this in no other country. MAien in Paris last year, I examined at least fifty Sand-Martins’ 
nests, but no trace of a parasite was discoverable. On examination of the specimens I placed in spirits, I find 
they comprise five distinct species a Tick {la^odes ?), a Flea {Pulex ?), a larva, probably that of the 
flea, an insect very like the Ricinus Mnmdinis of Latreille, and a brachelytrous Coleopteron {Oxytelus rugoms ?).” 
The Sand-Martin is found over all the British Islands, even to the outer Hebrides. The Duke of 
Argyll informs me that a considerable colony breeds opposite Balmoral Castle, and that it appears to be 
the most numerous species on the Upper Dee. It is also found in summer throughout the temperate parts 
of the Old World; for I find it in Schrenck’s ‘List of the Birds of the Amoor,’ Swinhoe’s ‘List of the Birds 
of China,’ in Blyth’s and Jerdon’s Lists of the Birds of India, and we know that it maybe enumerated among 
the avifaurise of the northern portion of Persia and Africa. It is also equally abundant in all parts of North 
America, where, as with us, it is a summer visitant. 
Such, then, is a brief history of the little Sand-Martin, the most hardy of the Swallow tribe which visits 
our island. Like the Swallow, it comes to us from Africa, sometimes in March ; but these early visitors are 
few in number; indeed winged Insects, upon which these birds solely live, are at this season very scarce, and 
quite insufficient to support a large number. These early birds frequent in preference the sunny sides of cliffs 
on our south coast, although sometimes they may be seen inland, flying over rivers and such sheltered places 
as are likely to supply them with an abundance of midges, gnats, and flies. By the early j)art of April their 
migration is completed. 
The sexes are alike in colour, and maybe thus described : — 
Head, neck, back, and upper tail-coverts light brown ; primaries and tail-feathers very dark brown; under 
surface white, crossed on the upper part of the breast by a band of hair-brown ; beak nearly black ; legs, toes, 
and claws purplish bi'own. 
The young, from the time they emerge from the hole in which they have been bred, are very similarly but some- 
what darker-coloured than the adults, and each feather is narrowly edged with grey. 
The front represents the bird of the natural size, colony in the distance, and the English chicory, Cichorium 
intybus. 
