566 



NEW ENGLAND f^ARMER. 



Dec. 



ous insects, they make sad havoc among them. 

 Mr. Audubon says, Martins seldom seize the hon- 

 ey bee. But the result of our own observation 

 leads us to a different conclusion from that of this 

 distinguished ornithologist. They exceed all other 

 birds in the dexterity, by which they accomplish 

 this mischief, not excepting the King Bird. Mr. 

 Wilson once carae across a penurious, close-fisted 

 German, who said he hated martins because they 

 ate his peas. lie was told he must be mistaken, 

 as they were never known to eat peas ; but he re- 

 replied, with coolness, that he had many times 

 seen them himself " blaying near the hife, and 

 going schnip, schnap ;" by which, observes Mr. 

 Wilson, 1 understood, that it was his bees that 

 had been the sufferers, and the charge I could not 

 deny. 



Here, had we time and space, we should like 

 to raise the question as to the right, legal or moral, 

 assumed by man, to shoot martins, when thus en- 

 gaged in procuring bees as food for their young ; 

 when his sole object in so doing is thereby to pro- 

 long the lives of these industrious insects, that he 

 may be the better enabled to gather a richer har- 

 vest in Autumn by commencing " Beneath the 

 cloud of quilt-concealing-night" a vigorous on- 

 slaught, murdering them diabolically, with the 

 fumes of burning sulpher, plundering them, and 

 that too in their own domicil, which should be 

 their castle, 



" O, man ! tyrannic lord ! how long, how long 

 Shall prostrate Nature groan beneath your rage .'" 



But, happily for the martins, but few farmers 

 comparatively keep bees, and consequently have 

 no occasion to destroy them; and, being pleasant, 

 agreeable, early rising birds, they are usually fa- 

 vorites with the cultivators of the soil. We have 

 been told by lovers of birds, who evidently were 

 desirous of shielding the martin from the imputa- 

 tions cast upon it, that it caught only the big, lazy 

 bachelor drones, that were no longer of any ben- 

 efit to the colony, but spent their days in good 

 weather in 'taking short flights from the hive, or 

 in loafing about the entrance, always in the way 

 of the busy workers. 



But truth compels the historian, in recording 

 the present and past history of our birds, to say 

 that, however much we may regret it, and strong- 

 ly as we are tempted by love for our birds to hold 

 our peace, and silently acquiesce in this belief, to 

 subserve the purposes of humanity, we should 

 choose not to follow the example of the father and 

 great reformer of American Natural History, who, 

 when told_ by a German that if he permitted the 

 swallows in his barn to be shot, his cows would 

 give bloody milk, and that no barn where swal- 

 lows frequented would ever be struck by lightning. 

 The author of the American Ornithology, when 

 thus addressed by the German, nodded assent, 

 giving as a reason for his so doing, "that when the 

 tenets of superstition lean to the side of humanity, 

 one can readily respect them;" by telling a Jib, 

 he should have added at the end of the sentence, 

 in order to have rendered it more complete. In 

 point of fact, the working bee returns to the hive, 

 with its thighs richly laden, and its little honied bag 

 full in its stomach, so sweet when crushed by the 

 mandibles of the martin, is its favorite food, and 

 he escheweth all drones as a dry morsel, not worth 

 indeed a snap of his bill. The food of the martin 



taken upon the wing, consists of bees, wasps, 

 beetles and other large insects. 



We must no longer linger here, but hasten to 

 the consideration- of another species of the tribe, 

 and it shall be the barn swallow. We shall at 

 once pass over the habits of this bird, so familiar 

 to every one, and speak particularly of its migra- 

 tions. And what a theme does this present. And 

 who can estimate in years that are past, the 

 amount of ink shed and paper blotted by those 

 who have written upon this subject, and shall we 

 presume to add something more to this vast accu- 

 mulation? Perhaps it may be necessary to say 

 something more upon the torpidity of the swallow, 

 in addition to what we have already said in a 

 former communication. And we would here re- 

 mark, for the purpose of correcting an erroneous 

 opinion, entertained by those who disbelieve in the 

 brumal torpidity in regard to the numbers of those 

 birds who pass, upon the approach of winter, into 

 a torpid state ; that we believe, as a general thing, 

 swallows migrate in Autumn, like most others of 

 the feathered tribes, to warm climates. The ex- 

 ceptions to this law of their nature are those birds 

 which, by force of circumstances, are compelled to 

 seek winter quarters near at hand. These sub- 

 jects of torpidity are probably the weak birds 

 of the second broods, whose pectoral muscles, 

 which move their wings, have not acquired suffi- 

 cient strength for a long continued flight. 



Now every person is familiar with the old 

 adage, that the lame and lazy in mankind are al- 

 ways provided for — and there is more truth in this 

 common saying, lightly spoken, when applied to 

 all animated objects, which a great and benevolent 

 Being has created, than is commonly supposed. 

 Nature provides for all her weak offspring that by 

 any cause are rendered incapable of providing for 

 themselves. Some persons have supposed that it 

 is impossible for swallows to live in a torpid state 

 submerged in mud and water. But we must not 

 forget that the respiratory organs of birds ap- 

 proach in their construction nearer to reptiles 

 than they do to mammalias — standing lower in the 

 scale. And it has been asserted, but with how 

 much truth we know not, that swallows in this 

 particular make a nearer approach to this lower 

 order of animals than any other birds. But we 

 will leave this part of our subject, and take up the 

 consideration of the time, when it is supposed 

 that swallows migrate to the south in Autumn. 



Here we shall find a great diversity of opinions 

 amongst many, who have observed the habits of 

 these birds. In the examination of this subject, 

 it would be well to remember that barn swallows 

 frequently, but not always in Massachusetts, raise 

 two broods of young in a season. Those first 

 hatched, together with the parent birds are the 

 first to migrate, and these are followed in a few 

 weeks by the later broods. There are also other 

 facts connected with this subject. Swallows arrive 

 sooner, and return later, in some districts, than 

 in others, even when they are nearly contiguous. 

 Many persons date the departure of swallows 

 from the time of their disappearance in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood in which they breed, sup- 

 posing that they have migrated, when, in fact they 

 have only left to join others in forming a division 

 at some general rendezvous, before their final de- 

 parture. Hence arises, probably, the reason of 

 different accounts being frequently given, as to the 



