These birds have a peculiar manner of flying; flitting about with
odd jerks, and vacillations, not unlike the motions of a butterfly.
Doubtless the flight of all hirundines is influenced by, and adapted
to, the peculiar sort of insects which furnish their food. Hence it
would be worth inquiry to examine what particular group of insects
affords the principal food of each respective species of swallow.
Notwithstanding what has been advanced above, some few sand-
martins, I see, haunt the skirts of London, frequenting the dirty
pools in Saint George's-Fields, and about White-Chapel. The
question is where these build, since there are no banks or bold
shores in that neighbourhood: perhaps they nestle in the scaffold-
holes of some old or new deserted building. They dip and wash as
they fly sometimes, like the house-martin and swallow.
Sand-martins differ from their congeners in the diminutiveness of
their size, and in their colour, which is what is usually called a
mouse-colour. Near Valencia in Spain, they are taken, says
Willughby, and sold in the markets for the table; and are called by
the country people, probably from their desultory jerking manner
of flight, Papilion de montagna.
Pages:
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284