Swallows 



where people live. The 

 same is true of the bugs 

 found in the nests of 

 barn swallows. 



Purple martins are 

 more common in the 

 Southern states than 

 in the North and are 

 welcome guests about 

 country houses where 

 barn swallows come, if 

 at all, only in the season 

 of migration. In Ohio 

 about one hundred mar- 

 tins have been hatched 

 and reared in one season 

 in the martin houses 

 placed over a single store. In Missouri a colony of 

 sixteen pairs of martins were watched from four o'clock 

 in the morning until eight at night, while feeding their 

 young. The males visited their offspring 1454 times, the 

 females 1823 times. 



Does the date of their return in spring vary much from 

 year to year ? Can you tell a purple martin or any kind 

 of swallow by its note? Do swallows and martins fly 

 less swiftly than chimney swifts (which are erroneously 

 called " chimney swallows ") ? Do you think that any 

 of these birds catch many mosquitoes? Did you ever 

 know of any of them doing any harm? Do people in 

 Europe prize swallows and martins as much as we do ? 



Joseph H. Dodson 



FIG. 197. An apartment house for mar- 

 tins. Unlike most birds, many pairs of 

 martins will nest close together. 



