The Elbert County tribune., 1908-07-02
TREE swALLoWs' TENAcIrY IN
HOME DuTlEs-MALE WREo
SITS ON EGGS.
CUCKOO IS NOT A BUILDER
Lays In Other Birds Nests-instances
OF courage-Partridge Attacks In
truder In Fierce Manner, usu-
ally Driving OF Opponent.
eY EpWARp B. CLARK.

(Associate Member American Ornithol-
ogists' Union.)
Copyright. Joseph B. 3owles)
II you are looking for luck. put
starch box with hole In it on your
roof and get a tree swallow for
neighbor. The bird is equally at home
above the city streets and above the
country streams. All he asks is q
place to nest and a welcome.
The Indian held the tree swallow
with the purple martin. a mascot of
mascots. In the olden days every
tepee pole had gourd at its top for
the use OF either species. and the
brave who had no summer bird twit-
tering above his door looked for evil
happenings.
The tree swallow (Tachycineta bi-
COLOR originally dwelt in hollow trees
along the water course. The custom
Is followed largely to-day. but the bird
has found that among men there is
protection from its natural enemies,
and so 1t is gradually forsaking old
ways and seeking civilization. This
swallow is a beautiful bird. 1t has
pure white underparts, while its back
them. are a shimmering green.
An experimenting friend of mine
put box on the roof OF his city resi-
dence. A pair Of tree swallows came
and dwelt there. The mother bird de-
posted five pearly white eggs. The
experimenter took the eggs. The birds
were loath to leave. In a few days
there were five more eggs in the box.
While his heart smote him. the ex-
perimenter took these treasures also.
The birds still remained about the
box. Four more eggs were laid, and
were taken. The tree swallows would
not give up. The female laid three
more eggs, and the hand of the de-
spoiler was stayed. The birds raised
their young, and the next season they
returned and were not molested.
Not long ago a Georgia man wrote
to me and suggested that gourds be
hung up for the purpose of determin-
Ing IL purple martins would use them
for homes in the north as they do in
the south. A gourd was swung from
pole in the yard of a friend. The
purple martins overlooked it, but
pair of tree swallows pre-empted 1t.
and in the swinging home raised a
family.
There were several feet of cord at
tached to the little home, and when
the wind blew the gourd was thrashed
about alarmingly. The mother bird.
however, saved the eggs from destruc-
ton with the close, soft feathers of
her breast, and before long four little
tree swallows peeped out of the en-
trance hole ready for their first flight.
One of our most abundant wood
peckers. the flicker (colaptes aura
tus), like the tree swallow, is loath
to leave the place 1t has chosen for a
summer home. The flicker nests in
hole which it hollows out of a decayed
tree.
Persons with callous consciences
have taken set after set of the eggs
of the flicker, the bird keeping up the
laying and the attempt to raise fam.
fly until nature was well-nigh ex-
hausted.
The flicker has nearly 40 Names
1t is known in different parts of the
country as high, yellow-hammer,
pigeon woodpecker. yarrup, yellow
shafted flicker. and SO on to the end
of the list 1t is abundant every
where. and in recent years 1t has be-
come bird of the lawns, where 1t
eats thousands upon thousands of de-
structive ants. An investigator con-
nected with the biological survey
found 1,200 ants in one flicker stom-
ach. The bird needs protection, for
everywhere 1t meets with the persecu-
tion Of the thoughtless.
The warbling vireos is bird with
a lesson to teach man. The husband
vireo shares all household duties with
his wife. He is on the nest cuddling