This hardy little wanderer, the smallest and dullest of the Swallow tribe, braves our climate ere the March winds have ceased. At first he is generally found in the neighbourhood of water, but he gradually spreads over the country and eventually assembles in the sand-pits or gravel banks, where he makes his home. Though not attaching himself to the dwellings of man, he is a sociable little bird and breeds in colonies, which are in some places very large. They nest in tunnels which they excavate for themselves in the perpendicular face of a sand-pit. These tunnels are straight and narrow with a slightly enlarged chamber at the end. Their length varies from eighteen inches to three feet, and the different passages occasionally meet and may be used in common by two pairs. A slight lining of bents and feathers are added, and the eggs, five in number, are pure white and somewhat pear-shaped. When the breeding season is over they scatter through the country, keeping largely to the courses of large rivers, and by the end of September have almost all departed to other climes.

The sexes are alike and have the upper parts brown. The under parts are white, with the exception of a brown pectoral band. There is a small tuft of buff-coloured feathers above the hind toe. In the young the feathers of the back have pale margins. Length 4·8 in.; wing 4 in.