272 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



grand sight, lined upon a telephone wire, 20 to 25 in a row and some- 

 times nearly an equal distance apart. In the spring at nesting time 

 these birds will not tolerate an English Sparrow but at this season af- 

 ter the young have flown they seem to pay no attention to them. Our 

 Martin's "as we call them" pay no attention to a gun as I have often 

 shot an intruding sparrow right by the side of a Martin without dis- 

 turbing the Martin in the least. The principal food of these birds 

 seems to be dragon flies, with which I have seen them so large that they 

 could not get into the house with them. As regards number of eggs 

 in a set will say I have found as high as twelve eggs in one nest. The 

 present home of our colony was originally placed on a telegraph pole 

 purchased of the local company, but this was found too high for good 

 observation as it was about 35 feet from the ground, accordingly the 

 height was reduced to about 18 feet making observations quite easy. 



AN INTERESTING FAMILY, 



We were wending our way along a narrow country lane, hedged in on 

 either side by stone walls and bushes, when the clearly whistled "phe-be" 

 of a Chickadee attracted our attention. A few yards farther on the 

 song ceased and changed to a series of "dee-dee-dee's" uttered as rapid- 

 ly as they could be uttered from the throat of an angry bird. It was 

 very evident that we were uncomfortable near her home but in which 

 direction it was we did not know, and had she been wise and remained 

 silent, we never would have known. She came down very close to us 

 and we then saw that she had her beak filled with small plant lice. 

 How she could retain her grip upon them and dee dee so vigorously 

 was a mystery, but the sound poured forth as rapidly and with as much 

 force through her closed mandibles as it did later after she had fed her 

 young. 



With Mrs. Chickadee to help us, we soon found the nest in a small 

 dead tree standing beside the wall. Violent as had been her protesta- 

 tions when we first found her, she soon became (luite reconciled to our 

 presence and in a short time was one of the tamest birds with which I 

 have had to deal, coming to feed her children when we were standing 

 within arm's reach of the tree. For the next three or four hours we 

 camped out, with our cameras, beside the tree and readily made a dozen 

 negatives of her and her mate in a number of interesting attitudes. 

 Had we visited them several days in succession we could, without doubt, 

 have readily succeeded in having them feed from the hand. 



After they had become accustotned to our presence they fed their 



