186 SOME TENNESSEE BIRD NOTES. 



oftener I saw them there, the more indig- 

 nant I became at the martins' un-American 

 behavior. Such a disgraceful surrender of 

 the Monroe Doctrine was too much even for 

 a man of peace. I have never called myself 

 a Jingo, but for once it would have done me 

 good to see the lion's tail twisted. 



With the exception of a few pairs of 

 rough-wings on Missionary Eidge, the mar- 

 tins seemed to be the only swallows in the 

 country at that time of the year; and 

 though Prague subis, in spite of an occa- 

 sional excess of good nature, is a most noble 

 bird, it was impossible not to feel that by 

 itself it constituted but a meagre represen- 

 tation of an entire family. Swallows are 

 none too numerous in Massachusetts, in 

 these days, and are pretty certainly growing 

 fewer and fewer, what with the prevalence 

 of the box - monopolizing European spar- 

 row, and the passing of the big, old-fash- 

 ioned, widely ventilated barn ; for there is 

 no member of the family, not even the sand 

 martin, whose distribution does not depend 

 in great degree upon human agency. Even 

 yet, however, if a Massachusetts man will 

 make a circuit of a few miles, he will usually 



