The following circumstance should by no means be omitted -- that
these birds do not make use of their caverns by way of
hybernacula, as might be expected; since banks so perforated have
been dug out with care in the winter, when nothing was found but
empty nests.
The sand-martin arrives much about the same time with the
swallow, and lays, as she does, from four to six white eggs. But as
the species is cryptogame, carrying on the business of nidification,
incubation, and the support of its young in the dark, it would not be
so easy to ascertain the time of breeding, were it not for the coming
forth of the broods, which appear much about the time, or rather
somewhat earlier than those of the swallow. The nestlings are
supported in common like those of their congeners, with gnats and
other small insects; and sometimes they are fed with libellulae
(dragon-flies) almost as long as themselves. In the last week in
June we have seen a row of these sitting on a rail near a great pool
as perchers; and so young and helpless, as easily to be taken by
hand: but whether the dams ever feed them on the wing, as
swallows and house-martins do, we have never yet been able to
determine; nor do we know whether they pursue and attack birds of
prey.
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