THE PURPLE MARTIN 293 
the Far North. Any one can instantly identify one of these 
birds by its jaunty top-knot, and the little drops of. ver- 
milion wax on the tips of its secondaries, eight on each 
side. 
THE SWALLOW FAMILY 
Hirundinidae 
The members of the Swallow Family are among the most 
sociable of our feathered friends, and also the most con- 
spicuous. Of all the birds that are known to feed upon and 
destroy the deadly cotton-boll weevil of the South, and other 
weevils also, the Swallows and Martins are the most effective. 
In view of the millions of dollars annually lost to the cotton- 
planters of the South through the boll weevil, it is amazing 
that in portions of the South some of these birds are shot by 
alleged ‘“‘sportsmen,”’ for sport. 
Tue PurrPLte Martin! loves the little house atop of a 
tall pole, which the country boy who loves birds takes pleasure 
in erecting for it. Forty years ago thousands of the prairie 
farms of the middle West bore these tall monuments to the 
love of wild birds which ts born in every right-minded boy! 
And _ how gracefully the glossy-black Martins used to circle 
and swoop and gyrate about them. Sometimes the blue- 
birds took possession of the martin-boxes, and then George 
or John was troubled; for having designed and erected on 
high a dwelling especially for the Martins, it seemed morally 
wrong that they should be forestalled, or crowded out. 
And then came Ahab, the English sparrow, a homely, 
1 Prog'ne su'bis. Average length, 8 inches. 
