WESTERN BIRDS Martin 



than the male; under parts brownish-gray, more or less 

 tipped with white. 



The birds are summer residents, only, and have taken 

 kindly to civilization, leaving their hollow tree and cave- 

 homes to occupy birdhouses placed for them by man- 

 kind. In the far east they are not so abundant as for- 

 merly, the English Sparrows being largely responsible 

 for this. And, too, the birds' habit of congregating in 

 large flocks as they move southward has been the means 

 of the death of thousands of them. T. Gilbert Pearson 

 has estimated that these flocks sometimes number one 

 hundred thousand. 



They prefer a grove near human habitation to roost 

 in and by their continuous chattering and fluttering 

 during the early part of the night sometimes prejudice 

 the neighbors against them so that they shoot into the 

 roosting flock. One account is given of the birds choos- 

 ing the grounds of a North Carolina hotel, where the 

 proprietor and his friends fired into the trees and con- 

 tinued to shoot until the ground was literally covered 

 with dead and dying birds, it being estimated that from 

 eight to fifteen thousand Martins were killed. 



We regard with satisfaction the fact that these men 

 were arrested by the State Audubon Society, convicted, 

 and fined in the local court. That did not, however, 

 bring back the life of these useful birds that were so 

 wantonly slain. 



These Martins are known to rid the air of mosquitoes, 

 flies, moths, and other noxious insects. Dr. Packard re- 

 ports having found one of the compartments of a Martin 

 house literally packed with the dried remains of the little 

 yellow-and-black squash beetles. Prof. Aughey, of 

 Nebraska, found that ten of these birds in his State had 

 eaten 265 locusts and 161 other insects. Surely, from an 

 economic standpoint, if no other, it is poor policy to 

 allow them to be destroyed. 



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