336 Bird - Lore 



were hard at work now, and not many weeks were passed before the hole was 

 crowded with small white throats and gaping yellow mouths, and then in a 

 few days empty again and Swallows and twitterings were no more. 



Since the Swallows had appropriated the Martin-box, there was nothing 

 for it but to build a new eight-room cottage for these hypothetical tenants. 

 This was set up on a pole and promptly occupied by English Sparrows. Every 

 day there was a nest built and every evening it was torn out. Then one day 

 there was a nest and an egg to lose and finally a Sparrow shot; and the next 

 night a pair of Martins actually arrived. After that they came, one by one, 

 the males always first, and a great rejoicing crowd they made, perched all over 

 their house, chattering together, and then starting off on their great tireless 

 swooping flights, playing wonderful games in midair, with feathers or green 

 leaves dropped and caught again, till they were off through the sky and away 

 out of sight. 



Soon they were busy with family cares, and the tired mothers would come 

 out in the evenings to gossip and stretch their cramped wings before they 

 were back again at their monotonous duties, while the fathers had a gay time 

 together out over the river catching gnats and dragon-flies. 



Last and least came a pair of Wrens and adopted a green-painted chalk-box 

 in a lilac bush by the porch. Of these we knew little except a preposterously 

 loud and cheerful song and an occasional little brown bird which slipped noise- 

 lessly into a tiny black hole. 



All this had happened by the first of July. The advantages which this place 

 possesses are not unique — old apple trees, nearby water and some shrubbery — 

 yet besides the tenants of our boxes much could be said of Robins and Cat- 

 birds, of Orioles and Kingbirds, of Chippies and Goldfinches and Yellow 

 Warblers and Hummingbirds, some a prey to Sparrows and some to cats, but 

 most, at the last, leading out a victorious brood, working away all their gay 

 spring spirits, but earning again their trip to the South and their fountain of 

 eternal youth. 



If any man believeth, let him go and do likewise, and above all let him swear 

 unending hostility to English Sparrows, Starlings, and Cats. 



