THE WAXWINGS AND SWALLOWS 
193 
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. 
BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 
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 
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- 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 
1 A. ce-dro'rum. Length, about 7 inches. 
2 Prog'ne su'bis. 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, 5f inches. 
