CLIFF SWALLOW 329 



also. You can hardly believe that a living creature can 

 wear such colors. A hickory, too, is the fittest perch 

 for him. 



PURPLE MARTIN 



June 15, 1852. The chuckhng warble of martins 

 heard over the meadow, from a village box. 



[/^ee also undet General and Miscellaneous, pp. 408, 

 409.] 



CLIFF SWALLOW; REPUBLICAN SWALLOW 



1850. Returning, I saw in Sudbury twenty-five nests 

 of the new (cliff ?) swallow ' under the eaves of a barn. 

 They seemed particularly social and loquacious neigh- 

 bors, though their voices are rather squeaking. Their 

 nests, built side by side, looked somewhat like large 

 hornets' nests, enough so to prove a sort of connection. 

 Their activity, sociability, and chattiness make them 

 fit pensioners and neighbors of man — summer com- 

 panions — for the barn-yard. 



Nov. 9, 1857. Mr. Farmer tells me that one Sunday 

 he went to his barn, having nothing to do, and thought 

 he would watch the swallows, republican swallows. The 

 old bird was feeding her young, and he sat within fif- 

 teen feet, overlooking them. There were five young, and 

 he was curious to know how each received its share ; 



^ [This bird was then a comparatively recent addition to the avi- 

 fauna of eastern Massachusetts, whither it had spread from its early 

 home in the West. The name " republican " was given to it by Audu- 

 bon on account of its social nesting habits. The notion that its irruption 

 into the East was coincident with the rise of the Republican Party, and 

 that this gave it its popular name, is, of course, a false one.] 



