192 
BANK SWALLOW OR SAND MARTIN, 
same manner as Woodpeckers ; and few ornithological occupations have 
proved more pleasing to me than that of watching several hundred pairs of 
these winged artificers all busily and equally engaged, some in digging the 
burrows, others in obtaining food, which they would now and then bring 
in their bills for the use of their mates, or in procuring bits of dry grass or 
large feathers of the duck or goose, for the construction of their nests. 
So industrious are the little creatures that I have known a hole dug to the 
depth of three feet four inches, and the nest finished, in four days, the first 
egg being deposited on the morning of the fifth. It sometimes happens that 
soon after the excavation has been commenced, some obstruction presents 
itself, defying the utmost exertions of the birds ; in which case they abandon 
the spot, and begin elsewhere in the neighbourhood. If these obstructions 
occur and are pretty general, the colony leave the place ; and it is very 
seldom that, after such an occurrence, any Swallows of this species are seen 
near it. I have sometimes been surprised to see them bore in extremely 
loose sand. On the sea-coast, where soft banks are frequent, you might 
suppose that, as the burrows are only a few inches apart, the sand might 
fall in so as to obstruct the holes and suffoqate their inmates ; but I have 
not met with an instance of such a calamitous occurrence. Along the 
banks of small rivulets, I have found these birds having nests within a foot 
or two of the water, having been bored among the roots of some large trees, 
where I thought they were exposed to mice, rats, or other small preda- 
ceous animals.' The nest is generally formed of some short bits of dry 
grass, and lined with a considerable number of large feathers. They lay 
from five to seven eggs for the first brood, fewer for the next. They are 
of an ovate, somewhat pointed form, pure white, eight-twelfths of an inch 
long, and six-twelfths in breadth. 
The young, as soon as they are able to move with ease, often crawl to the 
entrance of the hole, to wait the return of their parents with food. On such 
occasions they are often closely watched by the smaller Hawks, as well as 
the common Crows, which seize and devour them, in spite of the clamour of 
the old birds. These depredations upon the young are in fact continued 
after they have left the nest, and while they are perched on the dry twigs 
of the low trees in the neighbourhood, until they are perfectly able to main- 
tain themselves on wing without the assistance of their parents. 
In Louisiana, or in any district where this species raises more than one 
brood in the season, the males, I believe, take the principal charge of the 
young that have left the nest, though both sexes alternately incubate, all their 
moments being thus rendered full of care and anxiety respecting both their 
offspring and the sitting bird. The young acquire the full brown plumage 
of the adult by the first spring, when there is no observable difference be- 
