270 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



haps it was fortunate after all that two of the eggs had 

 been broken, for now there were only two baby mouths to 

 fill, and it seems that young martins are all appetite. No 

 matter how often they are fed, they are always ready for 

 more; and in spite of all the parents could do, those 

 babies were always ready to accept hard boiled egg or 

 small grasshoppers at my hand. By the time they were 

 a week old, they were too large for the sparrows to injure, 

 and both martins and sparrows seemed to recognize this. 

 So both parents were free to hunt, and it was only a few 

 days till both seemed to show more vigor of flight than 

 when they were living the strenuous life necessary to safe- 

 guard the home. 



The old spotted cat which, like most of her tribe, some- 

 times caught birds, but seemed to be particularly for- 

 tunate in catching only those I was glad to see destroyed, 

 went down to the neighbor's, climbed the wind-mill tower 

 and caught the sparrow on her nest. She not only made 

 quick work of the mother, but devoured the five young 

 birds as well; and this ended the martins' trouble from 

 that source. 



Not only had the martins guarded their nest against 

 the sparrows, but they were almost as active as Jerry the 

 kingbird in chasing and keeping hawks and crows from 

 their neighborhood. Because the martins are such fighters 

 they were favorites with our American Indians. Before 

 the white man came to our shores, these people made it a 

 practise to cut holes in the side of large gourds and hang 

 them in the trees near their village to attract the martins. 

 The birds in turn protected from buzzards and hawks the 

 deer skins and other pelts which were stretched on the 

 trees near the Indian camp during the tanning process. 



