194 ScientiJiG Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



strong, and, while feeding, they are excessively graceful in their 

 motions among the branches. 



Progne subis (Linn.) Purple Martin. —This large and power- 

 ful swallow is an abundant summer visitor to the inhabited 

 parts of the more open districts, and is especially numerous in the 

 neighbourhood of towns and villages, where most of the houses 

 are provided with boxes for their accommodation. They begin 

 to arrive about the last week of March, and immediately set about 

 the choice of a box for nidification; this is accomplished with very 

 little bickering, although several pairs may choose compartments 

 under the same roof; they lay a foundation of straw, grass, 

 twigs, and similar materials carelessly heaped together, and line 

 it softly and warmly with feathers and cotton ; the eggs are pure 

 white, five in number, and two broods are raised in the season. 

 This is one of the first birds to leave in the fall, none being seen 

 after the middle of August. On the open prairie they are much 

 more scarce than in the thickly populated lands, doubtless owing 

 to the want of suitable nesting places, since, when a box is put up 

 in a new locality, however isolated, it rarely remains long un- 

 tenanted ; and it is to be remarked that these new settlers are 

 invariably birds of the preceding year, the male being still clad 

 in the dull plumage of immaturity, which he does not lose until 

 his second moult. From this fact it may be inferred that each 

 pair returns annually to the same box. They are encouraged in 

 every way about the prairie farms, from a belief that they drive 

 away hawks from the neighbourhood of the houses which they 

 frequent, and they amply repay their protectors by the destruc- 

 tion of insect pests, of which they consume enormous numbers ; 

 indeed, from a careful computation arrived at by watching the 

 birds feeding their young at different hours in the day, I conclude 

 that each pair and their brood consume at least one thousand 

 insects daily. 



Petrochelidon lunifrons (Say.) Cliff Swallow. — The cliff" 

 swallow arrives with us about the end of April, and for the next 

 three weeks may be seen almost every day passing in small 

 flocks, their flight having a general north-easterly direction, 

 though they continually hawk for insects as they go. Their 

 return flight, for they certainly do not breed in this neighbourhood, 

 is accomplished in a most erratic manner ; for instance, on July 



