THE DRAWBRIDGE. 277 



My attention was called by an old observer to the 

 fact that, in clear weather, these swallows never alighted 

 upon the roof of the bridge ; but when there was a gen- 

 tle rain, without wind, they would line the peak of the 

 roof facing the storm, and chatter incessantly. They 

 seemed to enjoy this method of bathing more than by 

 dipping into the w\ater always beneath them. Later, I 

 found that this did not hold good of a colony of these 

 swallows nesting against a barn. These birds appeared 

 never to alight upon the roof, and when it rained clung 

 to the outsides of the nests, or flew about as usual, un- 

 less the storm was violent. 



Speaking of swallows recalls the fact that the pur- 

 ple martins, princes of their race, have within the past 

 quarter of a century become less and less abundant in 

 this neighborhood. This has not arisen in consequence 

 of the removal of the boxes erected for their accommo- 

 dation. They were abandoned gradually, here and there 

 a colony, until not a twentieth part of tliose here twenty- 

 five years ago remain. Yery many of the old boxes are 

 still standing, and usually are tenanted by the pestifer- 

 ous foreign sparrow. 



Many causes have been assigned for the withdrawal 

 of the martins, mostly quite untenable ones, and even 

 that one which is most plausible not holding good. It 

 has been supposed that the annual cold storm in May 

 proved fatal to many ; and again, by lessening for the 

 time beins: the amount of active insect life, the surviv- 

 ors became utterly discouraged. But cold storms in 

 May were as frequent in the last century as in this. Dr. 

 Benjamin Smith Barton, whom I have so frequently 



