76 LEAVES FROM THE 



Then there is the 'purple martin/* — a general 

 favourite with the Anglo-Americans, and even with the 

 Indians. Boxes are placed for the welcome birds in the 

 homesteads, and in these comfortable lodgings four spot- 

 less white eggs, very small for the size of the bird, are 

 deposited. 



He well repays the hospitality. 



The purple martin (says the author last quoted), like his half- 

 cousin the king-bird, is the terror of crows, hawks, and eagles ; 

 these he attacks whenever they make their appearance, and with 

 such vigour and rapidity that they instantly have recourse to flight. 

 So well knovvTi is this to the lesser birds and to the domestic 

 poultry, that as soon as they hear the martin's voice engaged in 

 fight, all is alarm and consternation. To observe with what spirit 

 and audacity this bird dives and sweeps upon and around the hawk 

 or eagle is astonishing ; he also bestows an occasional bastinading 

 on the king-bird when he finds him too near his premises, though 

 he will at any time instantly co-operate with him in attacking the 

 common enemy. 



Byron, who then rarely, if ever, tasted meat, sitting 

 one day opposite to Moore, who was discussing a beef- 

 steak with hearty good will, inquired whether the diet 

 did not make him savage? The stimulating food of the 

 pugnacious purple martin differs from all the rest of the 

 American swallows ; wasps and beetles, particularly those 

 called by the boys, ' Goldsmiths,' are his favourite prey. 

 Wilson took four of these large beetles from the stomach 

 of one of these birds. 



But we must leave the other American Hirundinidce, 

 though the temptation be strong ; for it is impossible not 

 to be struck with the migration which is at this moment 

 in progress all over the world. For example, we have it 

 on undoubted authority that from the twenty-first day 

 of March to the first of May, at least one hundred million 

 of birds enter Pennsylvania from the south, — part on their 



Hirundo purpurea, Linn.; Frogne purpurea, Boie. 



