BANK SWALLOW; SAND MARTIN.
Hirundo riparia, Linn. S. N. I, 1766, 344.—Wils.; Aud.—Lembeye, Aves de Cuba, 1850, 47, lam. vii, fig. 3.—Jones, Nat. Hist. Bermuda, 34 (occasional, Aug. and Sept.). Cotyle riparia, Boie, Isis, 1822, 550.—Cassin.—Brewer, N. A. Oöl. I, 1857, 105, pl. iv, fig. 49 (eggs).—Cab. Jour. 1856, 4 (Cuba).—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 313; Rev. 1864, 319.—Ib. 1861, 93 (Costa Rica [?]).—Gundlach, Cab. Jour. 1861, 330 (very rare in Cuba).—March, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1863, 297 (Jamaica; very rare). Heermann, P. R. R. X, 36 (California; abundant?).—Dall & Bannister, 280 (Alaska).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 110.—Samuels, 258. Hirundo cinerea, Vieill. Hirundo riparia americana, Max.
Sp. Char. Adult. Above grayish-brown, somewhat fuliginous, with a tendency to paler margins of the feathers. Beneath pure white, with a band across the breast and the sides of the body like the back. Length, 4.75; wing, 4.00; tail, 2.00.
Young birds have less emarginate tails, and the feathers of back, rump, and wings edged with whitish.
Hab. The whole of North America; Bermudas; Greater Antilles; Costa Rica; Western Brazil (Pelz.). Also found in the northern parts of the Old World.
A critical examination has failed to reveal any difference between European and American specimens of this bird.
Cotyle riparia.
Habits. The common Bank Swallow as we know it, or Sand Martin as it is called in England, is nearly or quite cosmopolitan in its distribution. Found throughout Europe in the season of reproduction, and in portions of Africa in the winter months, it is equally common throughout North America in the summer, and probably winters in Mexico and in Central and South America, though it is not mentioned by Sumichrast as a bird of Vera Cruz. It is said to occur in various parts of the continent of Africa, and in Europe it extends its migrations to the extreme northern regions. It has also been met with in India and in Siberia. Mr. Salvin obtained several specimens at Duenas, Guatemala, in September, 1861, having previously observed it about the Lake of Yzabah.
On both continents it is somewhat local in its distribution, in favorable localities being quite abundant, and in others not known to exist. It is an early spring visitant wherever found, appearing in England by the 24th of March, and even in our high Arctic regions early in May, often in such inclement weather that it is obliged to take refuge in holes. Mr. Dall met with this species in Alaska, in favorable situations, in immense numbers. He counted on the face of one sand-bluff over seven hundred nest-holes made by these birds, and all of them apparently occupied, so that the bluff presented the appearance of an immense honeycomb alive with bees. He states that it takes the bird four days to excavate its nest. Rev. F. O. Morris, on the other hand, who has closely watched their operations in England, says that it requires a fortnight, and that the weight of sand a pair of these birds removes is twenty ounces in a day. Pebbles of more than two ounces in weight have been known to be taken out by them.