Another Purple Martin Roost in the City of Washington 97 



birds, from 100 to 2,000 or 3,000, as they arrived, sought the wireless telegraph 

 apparatus, where they perched close together on the wires, and even lined the 

 nearly vertical wire supports. This took place on nearly every evening, though 

 occasionally all the birds remained in the air; at times they would all suddenly 

 leave the wires as though by a common impulse, circle around in the air, and 

 either return or enter the roost. On a few evenings they were observed resting 

 in numbers also on the cornices of the various buildings in the vicinity. The 

 birds that remained in the air would course leisurely about in all directions, 

 covering a wide area, and, as the number increased, would form a more compact 

 company, usually directly over the roosting place, sometimes high in the air, 

 sometimes low, rarely ever moving very swiftly or as a unit until time for enter- 

 ing the roost arrived. 



Up to about the middle of August there were commonly 3,000 to 5,000 Mar- 

 tins in the air when, each day, the rush for rooms in the Martin hotel began. 

 This took place from seven to twenty-one minutes after sunset, according to 

 the state of the weather — at 7.20 p.m. on August i, and at 7.10 p.m. on August 

 20. The entry was usually made rapidly and continuously after once begun, but 

 on one occasion, August 9, it was twice interrupted for several minutes after 

 a few at each time had begun to roost. During the first half of August the 

 birds entered rather gradually, slowly circling or flying aimlessly low over the 

 roost, then suddenly dashing into the trees, often with great swiftness. After 

 the first rush, which usually consisted of the birds lower down, those from 

 higher up, sometimes many hundreds of feet in the air, would, with wings nearly 

 closed and rigidly set, begin to drop, each like a miniature aeroplane in a tail- 

 spin, nearly vertically into the roost, and check themselves when only a few 

 feet above the tree-tops. During these proceedings streams of other Martins 

 continued to arrive, coming almost entirely from the west and south, singly 

 and in small flocks, for several minutes at a rate of 2,000 or more a minute, 

 then in gradually diminishing numbers for several minutes longer; flying leis- 

 urely at first, but, as the daylight waned, at a rapidly accelerating speed, as 

 though fearful of arriving too late for a lodging place. During the latter part 

 of August, however, the character of the flight materially changed, for the 

 birds more and more collected into a well-defined flock, which performed its 

 aerial evolutions more as a unit, and rarely entered the roost until all the 

 stragglers had arrived; when, swarming over the tops of the trees, sometimes 

 low down, sometimes at a great height, in rapidly moving circular form or 

 otherwise, on one occasion even in the form of a huge inverted cone, like the 

 cloud of a tornado, the birds, in great numbers, sometimes many thousands 

 together, would dash with great speed directly down into the trees. The lime 

 occupied by this performance was only from three to five minutes, whereas 

 during the early part of August, when the birds entered as they arrived, this 

 extended over a period of from twelve to thirty minutes. The last straggler 

 was safely housed by twenty to thirty minutes after sunset — on August i, 



