94 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
The Purple Martin is a bold, fearless bird, attacking even hawks 
and crows when they come in his way. Its flight unites in it, all the 
swiftness, ease, rapidity of turning and gracefulness of motion of its 
tribe. It is well known or used to be well known to all dwellers in 
town and country as the constant tenant of the numerous bird boxes, 
or swallow-houses which are erected, sometimes on the sign board of 
the Village Inn, or on some out-building in the farm yard, or even in 
the streets of the town. Of late years, however, I fear that the 
English Sparrow has to some extent ousted the Martin from its old 
quarters in the towns, for, though no match individually, the sparrows 
by their numbers and pertinacity so worry and disgust the bigger 
bird as ultimately to drive it away. A few years ago a pair of 
Martins occupied a two story bird house in the yard attached to the 
Canada Company’s office. There were many battles at first between 
the Sparrows and the Martins, but at last they seemed to come to a 
compromise, and the Sparrows occupied one story and the Martins 
the other, and brought up their respective broods without further 
fighting. Since then, however, the Martins have never returned 
and I cannot help suspecting that the same results may have followed 
in other places, for the bird certainly seems to be less numerous than 
in former years. 
The Blackbirds and Grakles now make their appearance, and the 
reedy borders of our ponds and marshes, aud the neighbouring 
woods are filled with these noisy birds. The Cow Blackbird, dJolo- 
thrus ater, arrives first. The Swamp Blackbird or Red Wing Black- 
bird, Ageleus Phoeniceus, sometimes in the last days in March, 
but more frequently abont the 9th or 10th of April, and the Grakle 
or Crow Blackbird a little later. Little parties of the Cow Black. 
bird may be seen on fine mornings visiting the pasture fields and 
lawns, running about the grass in search of insects larvee and worms, 
and betaking themselves at nightfall, to roost among the tall reeds 
and sedges on the margin of some swamp or river. This bird like 
the Cuckoo of Europe follows the singular custom of not making a 
nest of its own, but deposits its eggs, one at a time, in the nest of 
some other bird, leaving them to the care of a foster parent. When 
the female is about to deposit her eggs, she moves about uneasily 
from tree to tree until she discovers a nest from which the rightful 
owner is absent at the moment, and then quietly drops in her egg 
and flies off. It never deposits more than one egg in the same nest, 
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