ORNITHOLOGY 



367 





ORNITHOLOGY 





The Purple Martins will Come Back. 



BY FRED HIGH, EDITOR "THE PLATFORM/' 

 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 

 When the president of the Standard 

 Oil Company buys two martin houses 

 you can rest assured that there is more 

 than a passing- interest in the purple 

 martin. Men like Mr. Rockefeller have 

 experts to cull out the freaks and fads 

 and only the meritorious schemes ever 

 reach their notice, and not half of them. 

 F. A. Delano, President of the Wa- 

 bash Railroad, is among the friends of 

 the martins who has one of Mr. War- 

 ren Jacobs' Mansion-Martin Houses, 

 but to give a list of all the noted men 

 who have bought these beauty struc- 

 tures would fill a page of this magazine. 

 But a few of the prominent ones may 

 help us to understand this article bet- 

 ter so that we can grasp its purpose 

 more profitably. William Dutcher, 

 President of the National Audubon So- 

 ciety of Plainfield, N. J. ; Chas. D. Hal- 

 sey (of C. D. Halsey & Co., Bankers 

 and Brokers), New York; Dr. Ira A. 

 Keller (High School for Girls), Phila- 

 delphia; Miss Cora A. Smith (for use 

 of the biological department, Erie, Pa., 

 High School) ; P. M. Sharpies (Shar- 

 pies Separator Co.), West Chester 

 Pa. ; D. G. Trench, Oak Park, 111. But 

 why go on? The list before me shows 

 that these bird houses are shipped to 

 New England, Wisconsin, Michigan 

 and as far West as the Dakotas. 



This article is not written as a boost 

 for Mr. Jacobs. Those who care to 

 look into the commercial side of this 

 beautiful study will find that all such 

 information can be had by communi- 

 cating with The Jacobs' Martin-House 

 Factory, Waynesburg, Pa. My pur- 

 pose is one along a different line en- 

 tirely. 



The Saturday Evening Post is not 



given to boosting private individuals, 

 so it was an extraordinary event when 

 that numerous magazine devoted a 

 half-page article headed "Bringing 

 Back the Birds," a story of the achieve- 

 ments of Mr. Jacobs and his colony of 

 martins. As a boy, young Jacobs had 

 played around a martin box and when 

 he grew up his mind often went back 

 in the pleasant memories of those busy, 

 interesting neighbors. He conceived 

 the notion that even departed birds 

 would "come back" to their old haunts, 

 in spite of steam whistles, quarry 

 blasts and the general racket of forge 

 and factory if given an intelligent wel- 

 come, so in 1896 he built a bird-house, 

 designed with a view of attracting 

 martins. This mansion contained 

 twenty rooms and great was his de- 

 light when he discovered an old scout 

 flying around on an investigation tour, 

 and as he saw "to let" on every side, 

 he was not long in deciding to move in. 

 He hastened away to lead his good 



WM. ROCKEFELLER'S BIRD HOUSE. 



