THE WAX WINGS AND SWALLOAVS 



193 



BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 



end of each secondary feather gleams like a ruby. 

 No picture of this bird ever can fairly portray 

 its beauties. The Cedar Waxwing or Cedar 

 Bird 1 of the eastern United States is but a fair 

 understudy of its more robust and also more 

 beautiful brother of the Northwest and the far 

 North. Any one can instantly identify one of 

 these birds by its jaunty top-knot, and the little 

 drops of vermilion wax on the tips of its secon- 

 daries, 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 conspicuous. 



The Purple Martin 2 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 is 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 espe- 

 cially for the Martins, it seemed morally wrong 

 that they should be forestalled, or crowded out. 



And then came Ahab, the English sparrow, 

 a homely, quarrelsome, low-minded and utterly 

 uninteresting little wretch, a gutter-rat among 

 birds. Unless coerced with a shot-gun, he steals 

 the nesting-boxes of all other small birds, driv- 

 ing before him the Martins, bluebirds, and 

 many others who used to love our company. In 

 the North the Purple Martin does not seem to 

 thrive away from the haunts of man, and I be- 

 lieve their great decrease in number has been 

 due almust wholly to the English sparrow. It 

 is really a bird of the South, but there was a time 

 when it was common in at least some of the 

 northern states. 



The Eave, or Cliff Swallow 1 is still more 

 sociable than the purple martin, and also more 

 enterprising. With complete confidence in man's 



A. ce-dro'rum. 

 '■ Prog'ne su'bis. 



Length, about 7 inches. 

 Average length, 8 inches. 



PURPLE MARTIN. 



good-will toward the bird-world, it chooses 

 a barn that is big and high, and prosperous- 

 looking, and calls it home. From the edge of 

 3 Pet-ro-chel'i-don lu'ni-frons. Length, 5| inches. 



