The Purple Martin 95 



emies, they migrate boldly by daylight instead 

 of at night as the timid little vireos and warblers 

 do. During every day the swallows are with 

 us they must consume billions and trillions of 

 blood-sucking insects that would pester other 

 animals beside ourselves. Think of the mos- 

 quito bites alone that they prevent! Every 

 one of us is greatly in their debt. 



Male and female swallows are dressed so 

 nearly alike that you can scarcely tell one from 

 the other. Both twitter merrily but neither 

 really sings. 



THE PURPLE MARTIN 



There is a picturesque old inn beside a post 

 road in New Jersey with a five-storied mar- 

 tin house set up on a pole above its quaint 

 swinging sign. For over thirty years a record 

 was kept on the pole showing the dates of the 

 coming and going of the martins in April and 

 September, which did not vary by more than 

 two or three days during all that time. The 

 inn-keeper locked up in his safe every night the 

 registers on which wxre entered the arrivals 

 and departures of his human guests, but he 

 valued far more the record of his bird visitors 

 which interested everybody who stopped at his 

 inn. 



