lOi THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



descend like an avalanche into the river. Sometimes, the 

 side of a hill will slide, after a heavy and continued rain, 

 in the summer months, and do great damage. 



C. — What can be the intention of those little houses 

 stuck on poles ? 



F. — Have you not seen them before ? they are common 

 enough in this country, though we have none in our imme- 

 diate neighbourhood. They are put there solely for the ac- 

 commodation of the Purple Martin, a still greater favourite 

 than the Barn Swallow. The Purple Martin (Hirundo 

 Purpurea) is the largest of all our swallows ; his colour is 

 nearly uniform, a deep glossy purple; he generally arrives 

 about the same time with the bam swallow, though I have 

 not seen, or at least observed, any before those I now see 

 flying about their little painted houses. As soon as they 

 come, they find lodgings ready prepared ; for very many of 

 our farmers, as well as those in the neighbouring States, have 

 taken the tro.uble to provide boxes for the martin : some 

 erect them on poles, as in this instance ; others fasten them 

 on the very peak or corner of the roof of their dwelling- 

 house. The making of the box in the form of a house, with 

 holes in the shape of doors and windows, with the roof painted 

 red, and the sides white, is the taste of the provider, but it 

 is a pretty general one. In the southern States, I have seen 

 gourds hung on the cut branches of a young tree, near the 

 planters' houses ; a mode which Wilson mentions as practised 

 by the Indians : and as far as I could see, the martins were 

 as w^ell satisfied with this homely abode, as with the painted 

 and shapely houses of the North. I believe the providing of 

 a house for the martin is confined to the American inhabit- 

 ants : I have never seen one erected by an English emigrant. 



C. — I suppose the reason of their being petted is the 

 service they render in destroying flies. 



F. — Like all the tribe, the purple martin feeds exclu- 



