SWALLOWS 451 



them. Of course on their arrival they find the English Spar- 

 rows in full possession of their homes, and a pitched battle 

 ensues, sometimes ending in the ousting of the Sparrows in a 

 few hours and again the fight may continue for two or three 

 days at intervals before the Sparrows have been ejected, but in 

 all my experience the Martins have proved victorious every 

 time but once, when they failed to gain possession of their for- 

 mer home and left it for the season in possession of the Spar- 

 rows, but the following year they again returned and regained 

 possession. 



After the battle, the Martins busy themselves in throwing 

 out the mass of hay, feathers and trash left by the Sparrows 

 and incidentally any eggs or young which may be there. In 

 fact the duration of the battle waged with the Sparrows 

 depends much on the contents of their nests, as if there are 

 neither eggs or young the Sparrows do not fight long for pos- 

 session, while if young Sparrows are in the nest then the fight 

 is protracted. When the house has been cleaned by the Mar- 

 tins they do not seem to be in a very great hurry to start to 

 nesting. I could never satisfy myself that a second brood was 

 reared and think that only one brood is reared in Maine, but 

 the time when fresh eggs may be observed varies from June 

 fifth until July fourth. My observations on these birds at 

 Marlin, Texas, in 1891, indicated that even in their southern 

 range fresh eggs were the rule on May twenty-fourth. 



Both birds take part in building the nest of twigs and grass 

 or straw, lined with finer grass and feathers. Their comino-s 

 and goings are announced by a great variety of harsh, loud 

 twitterings and warblings; in fact the Martin is a noisy bird, 

 both when on the wing and more particularly when at home. 

 A common call is "pio, pio, pio" or a twittered "puttr-puttr- 

 peet-we-o" or a harsh "ack-ack-ack," also a great variety of 

 twittered sounds put together so that it might be called a song. 

 Nest building may take from five days to three weeks, or at 

 least it is that length of time after they first begin to carry 



