50 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Aug. -Sept. 



gave or house cornice, but for the most part it relies for its nesting 

 places on man's direct bounty in the shape of boxes or houses specially 

 provided for it, and it has, throughout the eastern United Stair-- and 

 Canada, practically forsaken its primitive nesting habit. 



For a good many years, I have had a martin house on the gable 

 end of an outbuilding overlooking the square grassy yard at the back 

 of our house. It has accommodation for eleven families, and is usually 

 all taken up every summer. Sometimes in the early spring, before the 

 martins have come, a pair of English sparrows decide that this is just " 

 the home they have been looking for, and begin to carry in great 

 quantities of straws, sticks and feathers. Then when the rightful 

 occupants of the house arrive, a fierce battle breaks out and rages for 

 several days, but always ends by the sparrows being evicted, and their 

 nesting material contemptuously cast forth. One year, however, the 

 pertinacity of a particularly obstinate pair of sparrows finally wore 

 out the martins, and the interlopers were permitted to occupy one of 

 the lowest corner apartments. Considering that the whole vast country- 

 side was open to them, the site seemed to be a poor choice for the 

 sparrows, for their sufferance in the house was of the most intolerant 

 description. They were continually harassed by the martins as they 

 passed in and out of their nest, and were never permitted on any 

 account to rest for a single second on the gallery in front of their door. 

 It was comical to see how cautiously they had to approach the house, 

 hopping with great circumspection from roof to roof of the adjoining 

 buildings, and then while still some distance away, dashing straight 

 into their compartment, too quickly for the martins to get a peck ai 

 them. But in spite of all their hardships, they managed to rear 'their 

 young. 



It ma}' be worth while here to remark that while the pugnacious 

 English sparrow is often and justly blamed for driving away many of 

 our smaller native birds, it dees not always succeecr in its nefarious 

 projects in this respect. A friend tells me that a pair of sparrows 

 built this spring in a box in his garden usually occupied by a* family 

 of house wrens, and the young sparrows were hatched shortly before 

 the wrens returned from the south. But the wrens were not to be dis- 

 possessed so easily. Immediately on their arrival, they opened an 

 attack of such sustained ferocity, that the sparrows were driven off, 

 their nest broken up, and their naked young ruthlessly tumbled out 

 onto the ground. 



The purple martins reach Arnprior on their' spring migration 

 about the middle of April. The average date for the last six years, as 

 given me by Mr. Ligouri Gormley. is the 14th. But while they may 

 5een around the town as early as the 9th or 10th, it is a remarkable 

 fact that for five years past, during which I have kept a record, the 

 first of them have with one exception always taken up their 



