BIRD NOTES 195 



WHAT TO DO WHEN STUDYING BIRDS 

 Ora Sweet, Auburn, N. Y. 



I Dress inconspicuously Birds have keen eyesight. 



2. Keep quiet. Birds have very acute hearing. 



(a) Avoid conversation. 



(b) Step noiselessly. 



3. Look and listen. 



4. Do not point and exclaim when a bird is sighted. 



5. Never chase birds. Have patience. Stand still a great deal 

 and use your common sense all the time. 



6. Keep the sun at your back. 

 7 Use field or opera glasses 



8. Keep a note book. 



(a) Write your observations on the spot. 



(b) Absolute accuracy is essential in bird observation. 



(c) Look first for the general color, then for the colors of back, 

 breast, wings and tail. 



PURPLE MARTINS AND THE BOLL WEEVIL 

 Elizabeth M. Norton, Savannah, Ga. 

 While I was in Macon, Ga., in October of 1916, my hostess, Mrs. 

 Codington, told me of the very interesting experiment which is 

 being carried on at her father's plantation. Her father is Col. Foot 

 of Mt. Airy, Ga., but he owns a big plantation near Albany. A 

 few years ago he noticed a few purple martins on his land, and put 

 up houses for them. The m_artins came in increasing numbers, and 

 he continued to provide shelter for them, till now he has between 

 seven and eight hundred of them on his plantation. Meanwhile 

 the boll-weevil had invaded Georgia and the planters on all sides 

 of Coi. Foot were almost ruined by them. He has had no trouble 

 at all with the boll weevil, and attributes his being exempt from the 

 universal pest co the presence of the purple maruins on his land. 

 Mrs. Codington also said that he had written to the government 

 about ic, and that the government was keeping an expert down on 

 her father's place to observe the birds, etc., and see whecher the 

 ultimate solucion of the boll weevil problem of the South lay in 

 providing protection for the purple martins. I remember that she 

 told me of one bird which they had cut open for experimental 

 purposes, finding in its stomach an immense number of insects, 

 weevils, etc. 



