THE PURPLE MARTIN 



from it, then with a quick jerk of his head scattered it on the wind. 

 The second beakful brought the Sparrow home in a hurry. The 

 Martin flew back to his place on the wire where he executed a 

 small triumphal demonstration. He plumed his feathers with 

 exaggerated swagger, that appeared exactly as if he were say- 

 ing: "Oh, didn't I fix you that time!" He sprang straight up 

 from the wire then rapidly settled again; he chattered angrily, 

 though I never before heard him make a sound when on sentinel 

 duty. He taught the Sparrow a lesson, for that was the last 

 time for weeks she entered the Martin box. She would dash 

 at the Martins threatening them outside, but she seemed to have 

 learned that there was such a thing as the besieged retreating 

 and attacking the stronghold of the enemy. 



The past year six pairs of Martins nested twice on our wind- 

 mill. They averaged four, creamy-white, oblong oval eggs to the 

 nest. After the first brood had become full grown and self- 

 supporting, still they all forced into that box for the night. When 

 the second brood was hatched, and joined the family on wing, 

 they could not crowd into the box, so the elders slept on top of it 

 in a narrow space beneath the platform of the mill. By October, 

 then, our twelve Martins of spring, allowing four eggs to the 

 nest and two broods to the season, had multiplied to more than 

 forty. The Sparrows must have destroyed many, for I never 

 was able to count above thirty at one time during the fall. 



However many there were, one thing was sure : they all stayed 

 in or upon that box at night. By sundown they gathered from 

 the forests or the river and began the preliminaries of settling. 

 For full an hour they chattered, jabbered and circled in wide 

 sweeps of flight around the mill. At first they would fly in a 

 wide circle nearly from sight. Then narrowing by almost 

 imperceptible degrees after an hour, sometimes longer on wing, 

 they would sweep closely around the box; at last one would enter. 



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