354. TREE SWALLOW. 
during the love season, are not musical. It is of a more quarrelsome disposition than 
our other species, and although very gregarious, rarely more than one pair are found 
breeding in a Martin-house. 
In Wisconsin these Swallows breed in large numbers in the old hollow trees in 
mill-ponds, full of Woodpeckers’ holes, and in cavities of trees in low woods and swamps. 
They are confirmed hole-breeders, rather jealous of the ancient customs of their family, 
and slow to yield to the allurements of civilization, though the most beautiful and tempt- 
ing boxes be presented to their choice. ‘When it will, it will, and when it won’t, the 
Purple Martins must be depended on to fill the neat little houses that we build to 
entice the Swallows. In eastern Massachusetts the change of habit is confirmed, and 
they now breed there exclusively in Martin-boxes and, according to Dr. T. M: Brewer, 
rarely if ever, nesting in hollow trees,—a fact perhaps attributable to the scarcity of 
these opportunities along the sea-coast, where this bird is principally found. Any 
sheltered and accessible box, however rough it may be, will answer its purpose, whether 
the more elaborate Martin-house,-or a mere candle-box with an open end. The same 
pair will return year after year to the same premises, and they soon become on 
familiar terms with the members of a family they frequently meet, so much so as to 
watch, when they have received materials for their nests, for a further supply, and will 
fly close to the person from whom they receive them. A pair which had thus, year 
after year, received supplies of féathers for their nests, from the younger members of 
the family in whose yard their nest was built, would almost take them from the hands 
of their providers. This pair sat so close as to permit themselves to be taken from 
their nest, and when released would at once fly back to their brood.” They build a 
loose, soft, and warm nest which consists of old leaves, grass, and rootlets, and it is 
lined with down and feathers, with which the eggs are frequently covered. An addition 
of soft and warm materials is often made during incubation. When the birds begin to 
build in the old boxes, they always throw out the old materials and carry in fresh. 
The eggs, four to six in number, are pure white and never spotted. The pair is 
devotedly attached to each other and to their young, and bewail any accidents to them 
or any threatened peril. 
In Wisconsin as well as in northern Illinois I have observed only here and there a 
single pair breeding in nesting boxes provided for Martins. The great majority are still 
nesting in the woods, and their real hunting grounds are over the forest trees, where 
they soar and fly, sail and skim with much grace and great rapidity. Even those Tree 
Swallows which breed in the nesting boxes near dwellings, fly and hunt for insects in 
the air over the woodlands. I have never seen these Swallows during the breeding 
time in the almost limitless prairies of Illinois and other States. In the far West this 
Swallow is also a very abundant summer resident. Mr. Ridgway found them more 
numerous in certain portions of Nevada than they have usually been supposed to be 
anywhere in the West. Mr. Ridgway writes: 
“This species. and the Purple Martin were the only Swallows which were confined 
strictly to wooded districts or to settlements, their distribution being much the same, 
except that, in the case of wooded localities, the former was most abundant in the 
river valleys, while the latter occurred oftenest on the mountains. Among the cotton- 
