Legend of the Loon 



There is an old story, one which certainly has the appear- 

 ance of truth, to the effect that when Nature manufactured 

 the first loon she forgot to give him any legs at all, and that 

 he had started off on the wing before she noticed her mis- 

 take. Then she picked up the first pair that came to hand 

 and threw them after him. Unfortunately they were a 

 misfit; and, what was perhaps still worse, they struck his 

 body in the wrong place. They were not only too short, 

 but they were so far aft that, although he could stand al- 

 most as straight as a man, and could swim like a fish, it 

 was almost impossible for him to walk. When he had to 

 travel on land, which he always avoided as far as he could, 

 he generally shoved himself along on his breast, and often 

 used his wings and bill to help himself forward. All his 

 descendants are just like him. 



William Davenport Hulbert. 



MARTIN, PURPLE 



The purple martin is very common throughout the 

 south In the northern states it is a compara- 

 tively rare bird of local distribution and is apparently 

 decreasing in numbers each year. 



Chapman. Handbook of Birds.^^ 



The martin originally built in hollows of trees, as the 

 white-bellied swallow still does, but is now seldom if ever 

 known to nest except in artificial receptacles. 



Stearns. New England Bird Life.^ 



90 



