AMERICAN ORNITIIOLOGY. 263 



mother bird, or the father bird, will sit on the platform and blockade 

 the door until one or the other returns with food for the babies. This 

 is kept up imtil one of the youngsters break out, sometimes to alight 

 head first on the kitchen roof, or be caught in a grape-arbor with f)ut- 

 spread wings. Sometimes if the little one is lucky he alights on the 

 branch of a tree. In any case the old birds unceasingly wait upon their 

 little ones, feeding and watching them constantly for a few days until 

 on strong wings they can soar to cheer the old folks who bore the hard- 

 ships of their summer's rearing with tenderness and love. 



The Martins are very sociable and neighborly birds. Where there 

 is a Community in which there are a number of Martin-boxes, every 

 pair of birds in that neighborhood visit one another's home almost 

 daily, especially after the young are born. 



Imagine the clatter and din from a half hundred throats of Martins 

 flying and screaming around the homes of their community, congratu- 

 lating each family in most emphatic terms upon the good looks and 

 health of their babies. 



A truly sublime sight is to watch a troop of Martins drinking in mid- 

 air, just before a thunderstorm. The heat of the day has been intense; 

 drouth has cauged Vegetation to droop under a blazing sun; the air we 

 breath is hot, as though from a furnace; the stiilness of all life is most 

 impressive. In the west there are forming great mountains of black 

 clouds. They seem to be rolling and tumbling over one another, and 

 Coming toward us. Every now and then streaks of lightning illumine 

 the sky, with occasional mutterings of thunder. Large drops of rain 

 begin to fall, and far up in the air the Martins may be seen catching 

 the liquid crystals as they fall, purer than those from any earthly fount- 

 ain, for they have come directly from the Hand of Heaven. 



As far as I can learn, but one Purple Martin has been observed in 

 central Massachusetts this year and the person who observed this one 

 is not sure as to its identity. During the breeding season in 1903 

 several weeks of continued rainy and cold weather appear to have killed 

 off all the young birds and to have caused all the old ones to leave and 

 many to perish. Owing to the scarcity of insect life they are unable 

 to get food for eiiher themselves or their young and whole houses füll 

 of young were found to have perished. In some cases a few of the 

 adults returned after the weather had cleared up but they did not stay 



