28 
FARMERS , BULLETIN 755 
thus defined, mast amounts to 23.4 per cent of the whole food, comprising 95 per cent 
of that eaten in November, 50.42 per cent in January, and 55.97 per cent in February; 
in fact, it is the principal vegetable food eaten from August to February. That such 
small birds should crush such hard nuts as acorns and chinquapins is surprising, but 
the broken fragments found in the stomachs well demonstrate their ability. 
From the foregoing discussion of the food of the tufted titmouse, it is evident that the 
bird is beneficial, and so far as this investigation shows it has no bad habits or tastes to 
offset the good it does by its destruction of noxious insects. If encouraged, it becomes 
domestic, and, like the 
wren, lives about the gar¬ 
den and helps to keep in 
check the hundreds of 
insects that prey upon 
the products of cultiva¬ 
tion. —F. E. L. B. 
PURPLE MARTIN . 1 
The purple martin (fig. 
14), or house martin, as 
it is more commonly 
called, occupies the 
whole of the United 
States during the breed¬ 
ing season, but is rather 
more numerous in the 
South. Its habit of 
building nests in boxes 
provided for its express 
use has caused it to be¬ 
come the most domestic 
of all swallows. Besides 
houses erected for them, 
the birds do not disdain 
gourds hollowed out and 
hung on poles. As their 
food is taken on the wing 
clear, open lands, espe¬ 
cially low moist mead¬ 
ows, offer them better 
foraging ground than or¬ 
chards or groves. While 
the greater part of their 
food consists of insects 
that fly, a few wingless forms, as ants, spiders, and caterpillars, are taken, but these 
are most likely picked from the tops of weeds as the birds dart past. Some ants have 
wings at certain times and so become part of the usual fare. In this investigation of the 
martin’s food, 56 stomachs were examined, taken in the five months from March to 
July, and the contents found to consist entirely of animal matter. 
As might be expected, beetles do not occupy a high rank in the food of the martin, 
most of them being but little on the wing. Together they form only 5.14 per cent of the 
whole food. Less than 2 per cent are the predacious ground beetles, and less than half 
of 1 per cent snout beetles or weevils. 
B2 I 64-68 
Fig. 14. — Purple martin. Length, about 8 inches. 
1 Progne subis 
