GREY BREASTED MARTINS 331 



would seek to relieve its feelings in flight, only to return later 

 to repeat the whole performance. 



After eight or ten days of repeated journeys to and 

 from the gathering grounds, the bulky nests were about fin- 

 ished and the females made ready for their household duties. 

 The several homes beneath the house soon held their full 

 quota of little white eggs. Two held three and another five. 

 During the period of incubation, which lasted from fifteen 

 to sixteen days, the male showed much solicitude for his mate. 

 He sat for hours by her side near the nest and chirped and 

 twittered in low sweet tones as if striving to enliven the mo- 

 notony' of her somewhat irksome position. Several times 

 each day, though only for a few minutes, she took journeys 

 in search of food. 



At hatching time a busy season commenced for both 

 birds. The business of carrying food to the youngsters went 

 on all day long, from early morning till late at night. The 

 little flesh colored babies with tight shut eyes and gaping 

 mouths needed much looking after, for their demands for 

 food never abated. After every third or fourth trip, one of 

 the parents cleaned nest wnth its bill, carrying away the ex- 

 crement incased in its thin shiny sack, to drop it at a safe 

 distance from the home so that the prowling marauder 

 might find no tell-tale evidence. (Fig. 112.) 



When a week old, the nestlings presented a curious ap- 

 pearance with their half-open eyes, vast stomachs, and shin- 

 ing transj^arent skin thickly studded with the black sheaths 

 of young feathers — for there is no down until about the tenth 

 day, when the feather sheaths break. Their food consisted 

 entirely of insects — flying ants, termites, ant-lions and drag- 

 on-flies. Sometimes a dragon-flj^ was brought of too large 

 dimensions to be easily swallowed whole. Then the wings 

 were. severed, one by one, from the body, which was well 

 crushed by the bill of the parent. The youngster would seize 

 it fiercely and swallow it with incredible rapidity, undergoing 



