consumed, but bees, wasps, dragon flies, and some of the larger predatory 
beetles as well. 
The birds mate soon after arrival, and for a home they select some 
crevice or hidey-hole about a building. A cavity left by a missing brick is 
sufficient, or a station on the eave-plate of a warehouse. Old nests are 
renovated and new materials are brought in, straw, string, and trash for the 
bulk of the nest, and abundant feathers for lining. Sometimes the birds 
exhibit whimsical tastes. Mr. S. F. Rathbun of Seattle found a nest which 
was composed entirely of wood shavings mixed with string and fragments of 
the woven sheath which covers electric light wires. 
The nest is not often occupied till June, when the birds may be most 
certain of finding food for their offspring; and the rearing of a single brood 
is a season’s work. Five eggs are almost invariably the number laid, and they 
are of a pure white color, the shell being very little glossed and of a coarser 
grain than is the case with eggs of the other Swallows. 
Purple Martins are very sociable birds, and a voluble flow of small talk 
is kept up by them during the nesting season. The song, if such it may be 
called, is a succession of pleasant warblings and gurglings, interspersed with 
harsh rubbing and creaking notes. A particularly mellow coo, coo, coo, 
recurs from time to time, and any of the notes seem to require considerable 
effort on the part of the performer. 
It will prove to be a sad day for the Martins when the English Sparrows 
take full possession of our cities. The Martins are not deficient in courage, 
but they cannot endure the presence of the detested foreigners. ‘The Sparrows 
are filthy creatures, and it may be that the burden of the vermin, which 
they invariably introduce to their haunts, bears more heavily upon the skins 
of our more delicately constituted citizens than upon their own swinish hides. 
No. 127. 
CLIFF SWALLOW. 
A. O. U. No. 612. Petrochelidon lunifrons (Say). 
Synonyms.—Eave SwaLLow. REPUBLICAN SWALLOW. 
Description Adult: A prominent whitish crescent on forehead; crown, 
back, and an obscure patch on breast steel-blue; throat, sides of head, and nape 
deep chestnut; breast, sides, and a cervical collar brown-gray; belly white or 
whitish; wings and tail blackish; rump pale rufous——the color reaching around 
on flanks; under tail-coverts dusky. Jn young birds the frontlet is obscure or 
wanting ; the plumage dull brown above, and the throat blackish with white specks. 
Bill and feet weak, the former suddenly compressed at tip. Length 5.00-6.00 
(127-152.4) ; wing 4.35 (110.5); tail 2.00 (50.8) ; bill from nostril .22 (5.6). 
