PURPLE MARTIN 495 



The young usually remain in the nest 24 to 28 days, but Forbush 

 (1929) says that "the young sometimes remain in the nest for about 

 six weeks. * * * Many of them return to the nest night after 

 night for a week or ten days, especially if the weather be windy and 

 stormy." Of the feeding, he says : 



Among the insects brought were some large dragon-flies; some were brought 

 by the wings, and the young bird leaning forward snatched the insect and swal- 

 lowed it, often with difficulty, leaving the wings in the beak of the parent. Some 

 were held by the body in the beak of the adult bird and were swallowed wings 

 and all by the young bird, though the ends of the wings stuck out of its mouth 

 for some time afterward. In some cases small snails and egg-shells are fed to 

 the young along with their insect food. 



Excessive heat and swarming parasites in summer often cause the death of 

 young Martins in the nest, or they are killed by falling to the ground, in their 

 attempts to escape from suffocation or the tormenting parasites in the nest. 

 When a young bird falls to the ground it is soon deserted by its parents, who 

 give up the attempt to preserve its life, and if not killed by the fall it is soon 

 picked up by some cat or other prowler. 



Charles Macnamara (1917) writes: 



By the first of July most of the doors are crowded with little heads, and the 

 whole front of tlie house blossoms suddenly with enormuu.s yellow mouths when- 

 ever an old bird sweeps in with a beak full of insects. Numer(>us counts made at 

 different times of the day during the first two weeks of July, 1917, showed that, 

 with remarkable regularity, a parent arrived with food every thirty seconds. This 

 year nine pairs occupied the house, and assuming that each pair had four young, 

 and that they were fed in turn, then each nestling was fed every eighteen min- 

 utes. A similar count for a whole day, from 4 a. m. to 8 p. m., cited in Chapman's 

 Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America, when reduced to the same basis 

 as my results, gives a feeding every twenty minutes. * * * As the young 

 grow up, however, they are not fed so often. After the middle of July the pace 

 slackens considerably, and the old birds have more time to sit around on the 

 verandahs and nearby trees, and gossip and scold. 



Plumages. — [Author's note: The sexes are much alike in the juvenal 

 plumage, except that the young female has the whole top of the head 

 gray, whereas in the young male the forehead only is gray. Dwight 

 (1900) describes the juvenal male as "above, including wings and tail, 

 sooty or clove-brown, the forehead and a nuchal band grayish, the 

 feathers of the head and back indistinctly dull steel-blue. Feathers of 

 the wings with verj' narrow whitish edgings. Below, white, mouse- 

 gray on chin, throat, breast, sides and tibiae, the feathers of chin, 

 lower breast and abdomen with narrow dusky shaft streaks." This is 

 worn until after the birds leave for the south, where a molt, probably 

 complete, produces a first winter plumage. 



In the first winter plumage the sexes are more readily distinguished. 

 The male has acquired considerable steel-blue plimiage on the upper 

 parts, is generally darker, and is much like the adult female in col- 

 oration, but the chin, throat, breast, and sides are pale gray and the 



