Bank Swallow (Clivicola Riparia) Swallow Family
Called also: SAND MARTIN; SAND SWALLOW

Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch shorter than the English sparrow, but apparently much larger because of its wide wing-spread. Male and Female -- Grayish brown or clay-colored above. Upper wings and tail darkest. Below, white, with brownish band across chest. Tail, which is rounded and more nearly square than the other swallows, is obscurely edged with white. Range -- Throughout North America south of Hudson Bay. Migrations -- April. October. Summer resident.

Where a brook cuts its way through a sand bank to reach the sea is an ideal nesting ground for a colony of sand martins. The face of the high bank shows a number of clean, round holes indiscriminately bored into the sand, as if the place had just received a cannonading; but instead of war an atmosphere of peace pervades the place in midsummer, when you are most likely to visit it. Now that the young ones have flown from their nests that your arm can barely reach through the tunnelled sand or clay, there can be little harm in examining the feathers dropped from gulls, ducks, and other water-birds with which the grassy home is lined.