42 



THE LANCASTER FARMED. 



[March, 



We will not attempt to treat the subject 

 scientifically, but iu our own way — confining 

 ourselves to birds wholly or in part inscctivor. 

 ous, and begin with those that take their food 

 upon the wing, lliese constitute the scavengers 

 of the air, and are provided with long and 

 powerful wings, that sustain continuous flight 

 with ease and great rapidity of motion. 



Prominent among them are the different 

 kinds of swallows, the night hawks and purple 

 martin. They are old acquaintances in Penn- 

 sylvania ; some of them great favorites with 

 our people, and all of them deserving our 

 fullest luKspitality and protection. 



They live altogether on flying insects, which 

 they pursue with great diligence and de.Kteri- 

 ty from morning to night. 



The number of insects a single iiair of these 

 birds destroy in a season, if it could be accu- 

 rately computed, would be astonishing. Some 

 faint idea may be formed by watching a nest 

 of the young while the parent birds are feed- 

 ing them. From our own observation we are 

 satisfied that the visits of a pair of barn 

 swallows at such a time was no less than once 

 in every ten minutes each time, with their 

 bills well filled with insects. 



Air. Palmer, of Massachusetts, states that 

 he saw a parent bird visit a young purple 

 martin on a church spire opposite liis window 

 five times iu as many minutes, each time with 

 an insect. 



Tlie barn swallow and purple martin, by no 

 means homely in dress, are sociable in habits, 

 and exceedingly graceful on the wing. 



The first named, building its nest in or 

 about the barn, follows the farmer to the 

 field, and keeps him company while at work ; 

 skimming around and past him and his team 

 — now close to the ground— now over the 

 loaded hay-wagon— then away into the ad- 

 joining field, circling among the grazing cattle 

 —it snaps up such insects as may be put to 

 flight by the workmen or animals. 



We remember on one occasion seeing a nest 

 of winged ants issuing out of an old fence 

 post. It was not long until a swallow dis- 

 covered them, and must have communicated 

 the fact to the others ; for in a short time 

 quite a flock of swallows and martins were 

 swooping back and forth over the spot, snap- 

 ping up the insects as fast as they took wing, 

 and few, if any of them, escaped. 



The purple martin is equally a favorite. 

 Wherever these birds have once established 

 themselves, which is usually in small colonies, 

 among the habitations of man— they will, it 

 not disturbed, return annually to the same 

 boxes, and become, as it were, a part of the 

 household during their stay. Their coming is 

 anxiously looked for in the spring, their 

 arrival is hailed with delight, and their de- 

 parture, iu the latter part of summer, more or 

 less tinged with feelings of sadaess, such as 

 we experience in parting with a friend. 



The presence of these birds, like the pres- 

 ence of the swallow, is by many persons con- 

 sidered as an assurance of continued pros- 

 perity ; while their failure to return would 

 be loolted upon as an omen of impending 

 misfortune to the house they have deserted. 



They are a lively, garrulous and spirited 

 bird. Not gifted with the power of song, they 

 seem to make up for this deficiency by an in- 

 creased love for gossiping. Their early morn- | 



ing salutations in front of their boxes are, 

 however, very pleasant to listen to. 



The male bird makes a model husband. 

 During the time his mate is sitting, he be- 

 comes quite domestic, and spends part of his 

 time in front of the box dressing and arrang- 

 ing his plumage, occasionally passing to the 

 door of the apartment as if to inquire how 

 she does. His notes, at this time, liave as- 

 sumed a peculiar softness, expressive of much 

 tenderness. And yet he is a courageous bird, 

 and will unhesitatingly attack with great 

 spirit and audacity hawks, crows and other 

 large birds, and even cats, if they show them- 

 selves in the vicinity of his home. Thus re- 

 calling to mind the closing lines of Bayard 

 Taylor's "Song of the Camp:" 



" The bravest are the tenderest, 

 The lo\ing: are the daring.'' 



" Conjugal fidelity, even where there is a 

 number together," says Mr. Wilson, "seems 

 to be faithfully preserved by these birds." 



The martin feeds upon the larger kind of 

 insects; wasps and beetles forming his princi- 

 pal food. We are aware tliat he has been ac- 

 used of a failure to discriminate between 

 sui h legitimate prey and the honey bee, and 

 that neigboring swarms have sometimes suf- 

 fered iu consequence. Be this as it may, for 

 our part we shall find no fault with him on 

 that account. Since its cross with the Italian 

 our honey bee has become such a pest to 

 fruit-growers that we might well be rid of it 

 altogether. 



There are two other well-known members 

 of this group with which we could not well 

 dispense. 



Our summer sky could hardly be considered 

 perfect without at least a pair of long-winged 

 night-hawks sporting lazily through it, and 

 descending occasionally with a sounding 

 swoop. 



Neither would our summer evenings be 

 properly rounded off without a flock of twit- 

 termg chimney swallows circling over our 

 heads and dropping successively out of sight, 

 as parting daylight is fading into darkness. 



In the second group we will speak of those 

 that watch for their prey from the perch, but 

 take it while flying. These are called the fly 

 catchers. 



Prominent among them are the king bird, 

 rock pewee and wood pewee. 



" It seems a provision of nature," writes 

 Mr. Samuels, " that all fly catchers shall 

 only take those insects that have taken fliglit 

 from the foliage of trees and shrubs, at the 

 same time making the warblers and other 

 birds capture those which remain concealed 

 in such places." 



" The king bird, iu seizing a flying insect, 

 flies in a sort of half-ftitting hover and seizes 

 it with a snap of the bill. Sometimes he de- 

 scends from his peich and captures a grass- 

 hopper that has just taken a short flight and 

 occasionally seizes one that is crawling up 

 some tall stalk of grass." 



"Those farmers who keep bees dislike this 

 bird because of his bad habit of eating as 

 many of those insects as show themselves in 

 the neighborhood of his nest, but they should 

 remember that the general interests of agri- 

 culture are greater than those of a hive of 

 bees." 

 He is possessed of great courage and is 



more than a match for hawk or crow, which 

 he attacks and drives off wiienever they ven- 

 ture into his neighborhood. 



The rock pewee, or liouse pewee, comes to 

 us in the early days of spring, and announces 

 his arrival by uttering the notes from which 

 he derives his name. 



Like the swallow, he generally seeks his 

 last year's nest and makes such repairs as he 

 fancies necessary; perhaps a small addition to 

 strengthen the outside or a new lining. 



The foundation of the nest is composed of 

 pellets of mud mixed with fine roots and 

 grasses, plastered to the wall or other object 

 against which it is built, and lined with soft 

 grasses, wool or feathers. 



His favorite liaunts is under arch of a 

 bridge, or under the eave of a mill or dwell- 

 ing. Here he can be seen during tlie breed- 

 ing season, perched on the branch of some 

 over-hanging tree, or upon the rail of the 

 bridge, or neighboring fence post, flirting his 

 tail, uttering his. plaintive notes and darting 

 about in all directions snapping up the insects 

 which generally swarm plentifully in the lo- 

 cality he has chosen for his home. 



The wood pewee is generally found forag- 

 ing along the edge of the woods that hides his 

 nest, or among the lower branches of the 

 fruit trees near the gardens, and even among 

 the trees growing on the city lots. 



Here, like his less shy cousin, he can be 

 seen perched on some projecting twig always 

 on the alert, darting quickly forward and 

 back, catching the flying insects that come 

 within sight of his ever watchful eye. His 

 notes, uttered while thus employed, are simi- 

 lar to the rock pewee only more plaintive and 

 longer drawn out. 



The next group, embraces those birds, fchat 

 seek and capture their food among the foli- 

 age, buds and blossoms of the trees and 

 shrubs. 



Prominent among them rank tlie Baltimore 

 oriole, orchard oriole, wood or song thrush, 

 the vireoes and some of the warblers. 



" The food of the oriole is almost entirely 

 insectivorous, young peas and stamens of 

 cherry and plum flowers forming the only ex- 

 ceptions. These small robberies are but a 

 slight compensation for the invaluable ser- 

 vices he renders the gardener in the destruc- 

 tion of hosts of noxious insects. At first 

 beetles and hyraenopterous insects form his 

 diet and he seeks them vrith restless agility 

 among the opening buds. As the season pro- 

 gresses, and the caterpillai's begin to appear, 

 he forsakes the tough beetle and rejoices in 

 their juicy bodies. Even the hairy kind he 

 does not refuse, and is almost the only bird 

 that will eat the disgusting tent caterpillar of 

 the apple trees." 



To its usefulness it adds a plumage of rare 

 beauty and brilliancy, a song of great cheer- 

 fulness and a nest wonderfully construcied. 



"There is in his song," says Mr. Wilson, a 

 certain wild plaintiveness, extremely inter- 

 esting ; that is uttered with the pleasing 

 tranquillity of a careless plow boy, whistling 

 for his own amusement." 



"It is a joyous, contented song," says a 

 v/rilcr in Harper^ s Magazine, "standing out 

 from the chorus that greets our half awakened 

 ears at daylight, as brightly as its author 

 shines against the dewy foliage." 



