ORNITHOLOGY 



329 



TREE SWALLOW'S NEST BUILT IN DEAD WILLOW STUB OVER WATER. 



Photograph by Dr. T. C. Stephens. 



sparrows should be summarily ejected, 

 else the martins may be prevented 

 from taking possession. Yet the mar- 

 tins are not always to be defrauded, 

 especially if the house be a nesting site 

 of long standing. The author knows 

 of such a colony in Maine. Every year' 

 when the rightful owners return from 

 the south, the sparrows are in posses- 

 sion, they having "jumped" the claim. 

 Then begins a sustained and spirited 

 warfare. The sparrows are in and have 

 the advantage of possession. The mar- 

 tins are out, but possessed of a clear 

 knowledge of their rights. After a 

 week's maneuvering the sparrows are 

 invariably ousted and leave, loudly pro- 

 claiming their opinion of the victors. 

 In a neighboring bird house the spar- 

 rows and martins have proclaimed a 

 truce and live and breed amicably to- 

 gether. This, however, is a new struc- 

 ture, where the sense of possession is 

 not so strongly inherent as in the case 

 of the old house that has been used for 

 many years exclusively by the martins. 

 The Indian loved the wild birds and 

 called them his friends. On a canoe 

 trip through the wilds of Minnesota 



near the headwaters of the Mississippi 

 River, the writer noted that the Ojib- 

 way Indians had put up bird houses in 

 which the martins were breeding. 

 Every Indian hut had its martin house. 

 Truly the Red Man must have a poetic 

 soul thus to love and care for these 

 gentle creatures. 



The cliff swallows and the barn swal~ 

 lows have allied themselves with man. 

 The barn swallow was originally a 

 cave dweller. But with the advent of 

 the white man, he left his caves and 

 boldly adopted the barn as sort of arti- 

 ficial cave in which to build his mud 

 nest. The cave swallow originally built 

 against cliffs, and does so to this day 

 in some sections of the country. But 

 he too has taken to modern improve- 

 ments and become a "progressive,"" 

 plastering his gourd-shaped nest of 

 mud pellets under the eaves in favored 

 spots. Almost any barn with conven- 

 ient entrance will attract the barn swal- 

 low, but the cave swallow is of much 

 more local distribution, shunning 

 painted buildings and plastering his 

 nest against the rough, unpainted 

 boards. 



