THE DRAWBRIDGE. 279 



been but a pair of each, tlie contest would have ])een of 

 short duration, so unequally matched are hawks and 

 martins ; but this was a case of twenty or more to two ; 

 and the battle, Avhicli was bloody, ended in victory for 

 the smaller birds, the sparrow-hawks being driven off. 



The liollow tree was occupied all that summer by the 

 swallows, and many young birds were reared, but they 

 did not return to it the following spring. In 1797 a 

 box was placed upon a pole for their accommodation at 

 the cross-roads, a short distance off, and not a summer 

 passed that it w\as not occupied, until ISttO, when the 

 martins failed to ap^^ear, and none have been seen since 

 in the immediate neighborhood. 



It would be strange, indeed, to find even a country 

 bridge an aviary, and yet we have seen already that this 

 one has an instructive ornithological history. The w^rens 

 and peewees have already been mentioned, but one bird- 

 feature of the structure remains to be noted. For years 

 a pair of barn-swallows have found a convenient nook 

 beneath the roof, and have never yet been disturbed by 

 prowling urchins bent upon destruction. These barn 

 swallows, the most beautiful and graceful of the fam- 

 ily, were never disturbed by the eave-dwellers, although 

 always associated during the day. I had abundant op- 

 portunity to compare their flight with that of the oth- 

 ers, and found it to be more rapid and artistic. They 

 could curve, dive, mount upward, reverse their flight, 

 and fantastically tumble in mid-air, with greater pre- 

 cision and command of wing than the eave-dwellers, 

 and certainly were less often at rest. Dr. Barton states 

 that the Mohegan Indians call the martin "pons-pau- 



