498 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ground, feeding on them and even taking bits up to the young. The 

 first time it was noted that martins liked shells was when a man 

 saw them holding on to a stucco house and pulling away at oyster- 

 shells that were protruding from the cement. The party told me 

 he tried to feed them eggshells at once, and from that time on all 

 the martin men in town have been doing this." No doubt it was the 

 lime that attracted the birds. Farley adds the interesting item that 

 "our purple martins have increased now (1939) to more than 200 

 pairs in our little town, from a single pair that nested here in 1918." 



The food is, of course, procured mostly on the wing and in the 

 usual swallow fashion of darting, swooping, and wheeling in erratic 

 flight, but graceful in the extreme. Sometimes, late in the after- 

 noon, or early in the morning, martins skim the surfaces of ponds 

 and rivers, dipping down expertly for drinks. Occasionally they 

 pick up food from the ground by walking about. In any summa- 

 tion of the martin's food habits and economic value Taverner's (1934) 

 statement is eminently fitting. Under the heading "Economic 

 Status" he says : "The Martin like the other swallows is a bird with 

 no bad habits, and with so many good ones that every effort should 

 be made to aid its increase," Here is no betwixt and between state- 

 ment, but a straight declaration of a fact that should be apparent to 

 every student of this valuable species. 



Behawior. — The purple martin essentially typifies the grace that 

 makes the swallows famous. Beautifully proportioned, trim, and 

 streamlined, it looks like a miniature plane as it sails overhead on 

 outstretched, sable wings. Master of the air, as are all the family, 

 it is not so spectacular in aerial evolutions as are some much larger 

 birds, but this is by no reason of inability. Because of its small size 

 much of its performance aloft is not easy to see and watch, as with 

 a bird of larger wing expanse. Martins do not usually fly at great 

 speed but are perfectly capable of such at need. Any bird that 

 catches such swift insects as dragonflies must, of necessity, be a fin- 

 ished flier. Feeding is accomplished largely on the wing, but martins 

 can and do resort to the ground at times, where they feed on ants 

 and other terrestrial insects. 



Francis H. Allen (MS.) says that the "flight consists of a rapid 

 flapping of wings, alternating with periods of sailing, either in a 

 straight line or in a long, sweeping curve or arc. The bird often 

 flies high, and his mellow, staccato song can be heard distinctly when 

 the singer is hard to find in the expanse of sky." 



Witmer Stone (1937) gives a graphic picture of the martin's flight 

 as follows : 



The martin on the wing is deserving of careful study : a glorified swal- 

 low. * * * His flight is at all times a wonderfully graceful performance. 



