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Birds of Massachusetts. 183 
found, they will resort to a woodpecker’s hole. But 
they are not often driven to such extremities; the 
industrious class of the community give them shelter 
for the sake of their morning call, which is the 
earliest that salutes the day. ‘Their notes are gen- 
erally pleasing, though not in the least musical; 
and the martin, aware of the estimation in which he 
is held, flies carelessly through the street, poises 
himself in the air to look into windows, hangs by 
the eaves of houses, plays with the kite-string of the 
children, or chases away the cat, who seems to be 
prowling in search of his young. As his food con- 
sists entirely of insects, his services are very useful. 
There is a tradition, that they first came into New 
England shortly before the revolutionary war, but 
whether their history resembles that of the cliff 
ees in papi gases or not, I am not able to de- 
tormi 
"The Bua nier Hirundo Americana, like 
the preceding, is generally welcomed by the farmer, 
who knows that these birds are of incalculable ser- 
viee in protecting his cattle from the insects that 
torment them almost to madness, and therefore is 
wise enough to allow them a shelter among the 
rafters of his barn. In April they return from the 
south, and soon begin to build against the timbers, 
with pellets of mud from the borders of some neigh- 
boring stream, inlaid with slender grasses, which 
serve to bind it together. The eggs are white, 
spotted with reddish brown. When the young are 
fledged, the parents use persuasion to induce them 
