The Purple Martin 201 



about our homes. Many of them will build close together if 

 the martin house or box is built with compartments to accom- 

 modate them. They are gregarious in their habits. Their nests 

 are made of leaves, twigs, grasses, feathers and other soft ma- 

 terial. In their nesting habits they are quite unlike the house 

 martin of Europe, which is sometimes called the "Martlet." 

 That martin attaches its nest to the buildings, much like our 

 barn swallows do, but with much more difficulty. Often it 

 takes them more than a week to lay the foundation for their 

 nests. In doing this they cling to the wall while they deposit 

 the mud of which the nest is built. When finished the nest 

 takes the shape of a half hemisphere and is lined with feathers 

 and bits of straw. That Shakespeare is the greatest of all the 

 dramatists is universally conceded ; that he was a well versed 

 naturalist must be admitted. His observations were accurate 

 and must have been extensive. His descriptions of objects of 

 nature are always accurate and felicitious. For instance, in 

 his reference to the "Martlet" in Act I, Scene 6 of Macbeth, he 

 says : 



"This quest of summer, 



The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 

 By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath 

 Smells wooingly. No jutty, frieze, 

 Buttress, nor coigne of vantage, but this bird 

 Hath made his pendant bed, and procreant cradle. 

 Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed 

 The air is delicate." 



Returning to our purple martin, we note that it lays four 

 to five white eggs. The males assist in incubation, which lasts 

 from twelve to fifteen days. The young leave the nest in 

 eighteen to twenty-one days. Generally two broods are reared 

 in a season. 



The purple martins have always been regarded as useful 

 birds. The Mohegan Indians said that it was "the bird that 

 never rests." They had a special liking for it, and often fast- 

 ened a gourd to their tent poles to invite its friendship. Audu- 

 bon tells us that in his traveling among the Indians he found 

 that they hung up calabashes for the martins, so they would 

 keep the vultures from the deerskins and venison they were 



