. The book of birds, common birds of town and country and American game birds . and oneof the greatest insect destroyers. From day-light to dark on tireless wings it seeks its prey,and the insects destroyed are countless. Itsfavorite nesting site is a barn rafter, uponwhich it sticks its mud basket. Most modernbarns are so tightly constructed that swallowscannot gain entrance, and in New England andsome other parts of the country barn swallowsare much less numerous than formerly. Iarm-ers can easily provide for the entrance and exitof the birds and 30 add materially to theirnumbers. It may be
. The book of birds, common birds of town and country and American game birds . and oneof the greatest insect destroyers. From day-light to dark on tireless wings it seeks its prey,and the insects destroyed are countless. Itsfavorite nesting site is a barn rafter, uponwhich it sticks its mud basket. Most modernbarns are so tightly constructed that swallowscannot gain entrance, and in New England andsome other parts of the country barn swallowsare much less numerous than formerly. Iarm-ers can easily provide for the entrance and exitof the birds and 30 add materially to theirnumbers. It may be well to add that the para-sites that sometimes infest the nests of sw;il-lows are not the ones the careful housewifedreads, and no fear need be felt of the infesta-tion spreading to the Insects taken onthe wing constitute the almost exclusive dietof the barn swallow. More than one-third ofthe whole consists of flies. Beetles stand nextin order and consist of many of the small dungbeetles of the May-beetle family that swarmover the pastures in the late afternoon. 12. CatbirhLoc:gerheai> ^shrikk Myrtlk WarblerBarn Swallow 13 PURPLE MARTIN (Progne subis) Length, about 8 inches. Range: Breeds througliout the United Statesand southern Canada, south to central Mexico;winters in South .Vmerica. Habits and economic status: This is thelargest, as it is one of the most beautiful, ofthe swallow tribe. It formerly built its nestsin cavities of trees, as it still does in wild dis-tricts, but learning that man was a friend itsoon adopted domestic habits. Its presenceabout the farm can often be secured by erect-ing houses suitable for nesting sites and pro-tecting them from usurpation by the Englishsparrow, and every effort should be made toincrease the number of colonies of this veryuseful bird. The boxes should be at a reason-able height, say 15 feet from the ground, andmade inaccessible to cats. A colony of thesebirds on a farm makes great inroads upon theinsect population, as
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Keywords: ., bookauthorfuer, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds
