344 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



in the air, sometimes several hundred feet above the ground, and in their 

 excursions travel 2 or 3 miles from their native haunts. If there is a river 

 or lake in the vicinity, though it may be 4 or 5 miles away, they will visit 

 it frequently, evidently for the purpose of drinking and pursuing insects 

 which are more numerous near the water. In May and early June they 

 are frequently seen on the ground in the garden, road or waste places hunt- 

 ing for straws, twigs and feathers which they use in the construction of 

 their nests. They rarely alight in trees, but like other swallows prefer 

 the roofs of buildings, and telegraph wires for perches. One will frequently 

 see 40 or 50 martins in a close row in those cities where they are most 

 abundant. In southern New York the nest is made early in May and the 

 eggs usually found by May 15. In western and northern New York the 

 dates range from May 20 to 30. In cold, damp weather this species some- 

 times suffers a great deal from exposure; especially when a cold, damp 

 snow comes in April after the Martins' arrival and continues for several 

 days, they are frequently found dead about their houses. Aside from the 

 unfavorable weather conditions, their principal enemy seems to be the 

 English sparrow which occupies their nesting boxes before the martins 

 arrive in the spring; and although they are very courageous warriors and 

 drive the sparrows from their chosen home and carry out all the rubbish 

 that the sparrows have carried in, the sparrows, by keeping constantly 

 at it throughout the nesting season, prevent the martins from rearing 

 their young, and so, after a few seasons of this continuous warfare, the 

 martins are driven from the ancestral home and the sparrows left in con- 

 trol. I have seen this history repeated in so many martin boxes of central 

 and western New York that I feel certain it will be the inevitable result 

 wherever the martins do not receive special protection. 



