12 Traus. Acad. Sci. of St. Loul.s 



Martins of a certain district, from wlicnco they start for 

 the distant roost in tlie willow tliickct, wliicli they do not 

 enter nntil it is quite dark, and whicli they leave with the 

 first dawn, from ten to fifteen minutes before the swift 

 leaves its chimney. 



Tiie youn.u: join the parents as soon as tliey are abh^ 

 to fiy the distance, or, as here, to cross the Mississippi. 

 From tliat moment the boxes are never entered again, 

 but tlieir roofs are used for social gathering in tlie morn- 

 ing hours during tlie next few weeks. The regularity of 

 these visits does not last long; pauses occur; in dry, hot 

 weather tlie visits are short, in cool spells they are cut 

 off entirely, but a sultry, rainy tenu ])rings them back 

 again to spend a few hours in animated chattering 

 around the old home. In the evening tliey only pass 

 without stopping, but they visit often their old hunting 

 grounds in the neighborhood. IXiring the day they are 

 seldom seen after the first of August. After this date 

 they appear late in the evening, but their number 

 increase rapidly. They collect on treeto]is, church steeples 

 and other points of i)rominence and loftiness, around 

 whicli they swarm like bees for about half an hour, when 

 the air for a mile around is filled with ^Martins, which 

 now form a whirling body of many thousand, rolling up 

 and down at first above the bluffs, then above tlie Missis- 

 sippi, going and returning in wude circles, but all this 

 time drawing surreptitiously toward the willows on the 

 other side of the river. It has now become dusk and the 

 descent cannot be seen from this shore, but the moment 

 can be known by a sudden outcry of alanned Crows and 

 Rlackl)irds which had retired into the same willows long 

 before. 



Such vast numbers of Martins cannot be sent forth 

 from one city nor from a few counties. ThC' Martins of 

 half of the states of Missouri and Illinois must flock to- 

 gether to form sucli an army. But it is not yet niigra- 



