i6 



wrong for the intruder is soon hurled from the room. Young 

 which can fly a short distance, I place in the tops of the apple 

 trees, or on one of the bird houses, but the old birds do not 

 seem to give them food, and only approach them in an en- 

 deavor to make them fly. About two-thirds of those which 

 leave the nest prematurely are killed in the fall, or die of 

 starvation or neglect. 



The parents get very audacious and dart, down at the head 

 of a person they are not accustomed to see on the lawn ; and 

 will sometimes fly at drivers passing along the street. 



When a young brood is old enough to leave the nest, several 

 old birds will fly back and forth in front of the door and keep 

 up a continuous chatter, endeavoring to induce the young to 

 come out ; and as soon as one does launch itself into the air, 

 the old birds gather round and fly at it, seemingly to force it to 

 an effort to escape them. In this manner most of the young 

 are taken safely away over the hill to the southward. 



For a week or ten days, the brood is brought back to its 

 home each nierht. 



Something About Their Food. 



The Purple Martin, as is well known, is eminently an insec- 

 tivorous bird, catching its prey while on the wing, its food, there- 

 fore, consisting of winged insects, such as butterflies, beetles, 

 cicadae, dragon-flies, may-flies and winged ants. By carefully 

 watching the old birds feeding their young one would suppose 

 that they feed principally on dragon-flies and butterflies with 

 an occasional grasshopper and annual cicada, as these insects 

 are large and easily recognized, but upon a thorough examina- 

 tion of the nesting rooms, after the birds have gone, remains 

 of myriads of small black beetles that infest the air during the 

 evening hours after four o'clock, throughout the summer 

 months, are found. It is interesting to watch the parent birds 

 searching the air for these minute insects, moving back and 

 forth, rising, falling, wheeling and darting. 



