A porter at a railway station close to a cutting told Mr. C. Simeon, who wrote on angling and natural history, that they did not allow boys about, robbing the eggs in the colonies nesting there. “They”--the birds--“are such good friends to us that we won’t let anyone meddle with them.” He explained further that the flies about the station would be unbearable but for the Martins that were always hawking about it. Before the Martins arrived a few warm spring days often brought out a troublesome number of flies. “Now,” he concluded, “we may see a fly now and then, but that is all.” The Sand Martin is smaller than the others of the Swallow family and has dull simple coloured plumage. Back greyish brown, throat and underparts white, the short forked tail is of a uniform ashen-grey. Feet small but strong. It lays five small, pure white eggs. [Illustration: USEFUL. THE SWIFT.] THE SWIFT. (_Cypselus ápus._) The Swift comes to Hungary early in May and leaves again the first days of August. In England it comes and leaves about the end of these months, that is as soon as the young are ready to fly. The materials for the nest are obtained on the wing, therefore often with difficulty, as the wind brings it. These are glued together by the viscous secretions of the bird. Sometimes, however, it robs Martins, House-Sparrows and Starlings of their homes. The wild note of _see-see_ has gained for the Swifts the name of “Screechers,” and “Devilings” in Great Britain. They always hunt in companies and one might say that they compass the wide world in their rapid and powerful flight. The feet which are so helpless on the ground are well adapted to clinging on to the rocks and heights where they breed. The work Swifts do in clearing the air of insects must be enormous, these forming all their food. This is one of the most interesting of our British birds, and one that is still an unknown quantity, in some respects, to the most learned of our ornithologists. “It soars on higher wing” even than the Skylark. A larger bird, it rises until it is lost to the keenest sight, remaining in the air longer, also, than perhaps any other bird. Whether it is capable of rising from the ground, when once there, is, curiously enough, still a matter of dispute among certain naturalists. “Can Swifts take wing from the ground?” was a question raised not long ago in “Nature Notes,” the organ of the Selborne Society.