708 ' The Sparrow-like Birds 



so to some extent, but in the east it has more readily adapted itself to civilization 

 and is found rearing its young in bird houses, boxes, or dried gourds that may be 

 provided by appreciative hands. "None of our Swallows," says Mr. Nehrling, 

 "is so generally known nor such favorites as the Martin. Everywhere, from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, this bird is known. It is abundantly present in 

 villages and even in cities, and everywhere is a welcome favorite, whose coming 

 is yearningly expected, joyfully greeted, and whose departure causes a pang of 

 melancholy. None of our Swallows have attached themselves as intimately 

 to the human family as these. All the other species are more pretentious in 

 their claims and will breed only when the conditions are particularly favorable. 

 The Martin is as well satisfied with the simple yellow gourd attached to a pole 

 near a negro hut as with the most-ornamented and best arranged Martin house 

 built in the beautiful gardens and parks of the rich. When no nesting boxes 

 are provided in the east our Martin will not breed, and it hardly ever accepts 

 nesting boxes attached to trees, preferring locations where the chance is given 

 to dart in and out uninterrupted by any obstacles." They are often dispossessed 

 of their houses by the despicable English Sparrow, and when once worsted 

 in such an encounter rarely regain their lost ground. The nest proper is made 

 of straws, twigs, feathers, etc., and the four to five eggs are pure white. In the 

 north only a single brood is reared, but in the south there are usually two. The 

 parents are very industrious in the care of their young, Mr. Widmann having 

 watched a colony of sixteen pairs of birds from 4 A.M. to 8 P.M., during which 

 time the old birds visited their offspring 3277 times, or an average of 205 times 

 for each pair. During the nesting season Martins spend the night in their boxes, 

 but after the first two or three days, when the young are able to be abroad, all 

 leave the house and thereafter spend the night in dense thickets, to which they 

 repair after dark and leave with the first appearance of dawn. All the birds 

 of a district appear to congregate in the early morning in some dead tree or on 

 the roofs of their nesting boxes before starting out for the day^'s foraging, and 

 the same process is gone through with in the evening. Around these places 

 they "swarm like bees for about half an hour, when the air for a mile around 

 is filled with Martins, now forming a whirling body of many thousands, rolling 

 up and down, going and returning in wide circles, but all the time drawing 

 surreptitiously toward the willows on the other side of the river." 



The Caribbean Martin (P. dominicensis] of the West Indies may be taken 

 as an example of those in which the plumage is not uniform, being glossy steel- 

 blue above and along the sides, but with the middle of the breast and abdomen 

 pure white; the habits of this and of the other species are apparently similar 

 to those of the Purple Martin. 



South American Tree Martin. Usually included with the last genus, but 

 here separated on account of a weaker bill, more extensively feathered tarsus, 

 and mouse-brown plumage, is the South American genus Phceoprogne, of which 

 the Tree Martin (P. taper a) may be taken as an example. Slightly smaller 

 than the Purple Martin but with greater extent of wing, the Tree Martin has 

 the entire upper plumage dusky brown and the under surface white. It is 



