BANK SWALLOW. OR SAND MARTIN. 
607 
often killed by canoe-men with the mere aid of their 
paddles.* 
The length of this species is about 5 J inches, alar extent 12. Above 
light glossy greenish-blue. Wings and tail brownish-black. The 
closed wings extend about a quarter of an inch beyond the tail. — The 
female is less glossy green. 
BANK SWALLOW, or SAND MARTIN. 
( Hirundo riparia , L. Wilson, v. p. 46. pi. 38. fig. 4. Phil. Museum, 
No. 7637.) 
Sp. Charact. — Above, and band on the breast cinereous brown ; 
beneath white; tail forked; the tarsi naked, with a few tufts 
of downy feathers behind. — The young , at first, have the 
feathers slightly bordered with rufous, this edging more con- 
spicuous on the wing-coverts and tertials. 
This plain looking and smaller species, though equally 
gregarious with other kinds, does not court the protec- 
tion or society of man ; at least their habitations are re- 
mote from his. They commonly take possession for this 
purpose of the sandy bank or bluff of a river, quarry, or 
gravel pit, 2 or 3 feet below the upper surface of the 
bank. In such places, in the month of April, they may 
be observed burrowing horizontally with their awl-like 
bills, when, at length, having obtained a foot-hold in the 
cliff, they also use their feet, and continue this labor 
to the depth of 2 or 3 feet. Several of these holes may 
be often seen within a few inches of each other. The 
nest itself, at the extremity of this cavern, is loosely made 
of a little dry grass, and a few downy feathers. The 
eggs are about 5, and pure white. They have generally 
two broods in the season ; and on the egress of the 
young, in the latter end of May, the piratical Crows often 
await their opportunity to destroy them as they issue from 
* Audubon. Orn. Biog. i. p. 356. 
