94 PROCKEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



The Purple Martin is a bold, fearless bird, attacking even hawks 

 and crows when they come in his way. Its flight unites in it, all the 

 swiftness, ease, rapidity of turning and gracefulness of motion of its 

 tribe. It is well known or used to be well known to all dwellers in , 

 town and country as the constant tenant of the numerous bird boxes, 

 or swallow-houses which are erected, sometimes on the sign board of 

 the Village Inn, or on some out-bailding in the farm yard, or even in 

 the streets of the town. Of late years, however, I fear that the 

 English Sparrow has to some extent ousted the Martin from its old 

 qviarters in the towns, for, though no match individually, the sparrows 

 by their numbers and pertinacity so worry and disgust the bigger 

 bird as ultimately to drive it away. A few years ago a pair of 

 Martins occupied a two story bird house in the yard attached to the 

 Canada Company's office. There were many battles at tirst between 

 the Sparrows and the Martins, but at last they seemed to come to a 

 compromise, and the Sparrows occupied one story and the Martins 

 the other, and brought up their respective broods without further 

 fighting. Since then, however, the Martins hav(^ never returned 

 and I cannot help suspecting that the same results may have followed 

 in other places, for the bird certainly seems to be less numerous than 

 in former years. 



The Blackbirds and Grakles now make their appearance, and the 

 reedy borders of' our ponds and marshes, and the neighbouring 

 woods are filled with these noisy birds. The Cow Blackbird, Molo- 

 thrus ater, arrives tirst. The Swamp Blackbird or Bed Wing Black- 

 bird, Agelceus Fhoeniceus, sometimes in the last days in March, 

 but more frequently about the 9th or 10th of April, and the Grakle 

 or Crow Blackbird a little later. Little parties of the Cow Black- 

 bird may be seen on fine mornings visiting the pasture fields and 

 lawns, running about the grass in search of insects larvse and worms^ 

 and betaking themselves at nightfall, to roost among the tall reeds 

 and sedges on the margin of some swamp or river. This bird like 

 the Cuckoo of Europe follows the singular custom of not making a 

 nest of its own, but deposits its eggs, one at a time, in the nest of 

 some other bird, leaving them to the care of a foster parent. When 

 the female is about to deposit her eggs, she moves about uneasily 

 from tree to tree until she discovers a nest from which the rightful 

 owner is absent at the moment, and then quietly drops in her egg 

 and flies off". It never deposits more than one egg in the same nest, 



