PURPLE MARTIN 491 



saws" who "cut off all the top branches from a sapling near their 

 cabins, leaving the prongs a foot or two in length, on each of which 

 they hang a gourd, or calabash, properly hollowed out for their con- 

 venience." Forbush (1929) adds that "when saplings were not con- 

 veniently situated the Indians set up poles, fastened cross-bars to 

 them and hung the gourds to these cross-bars." 



This custom was taken up by the southern Negroes on the plan- 

 tations and is continued to this day. Ever since childhood I have 

 seen, on the old rice plantations, and about Negro cabins in the 

 Carolina Low Country, martin gourds hung on cross-arms from a 

 tall pole. The rural Negroes think highly of the martins and are sure 

 that they chase away hawks from poultry. 



Instances of strictly primitive nesting are still to be seen in remote 

 parts of the country. Roberts (1932) gives an account of martins 

 breeding among large boulders on Spirit Island, Lake Milles Lacs, 

 Minn. Howell (1932) mentions two or three examples in Florida, 

 one near La Belle and another at Naples. A unique situation came 

 under his observation on Anna Maria Key in May 1918, when he 

 found a pair using a hole in a palmetto piling over water, the cavity 

 being about 3 feet from the surface. 



I have seen one instance of primitive nesting in Florida, that of 

 a small colony of about j5ve pairs utilizing a tall, dead pine per- 

 forated with woodpecker holes. This tree stands near the banks of 

 the Kissimmee River, near the hamlet of Cornwell, in Highlands 

 County, Fla., and martins were using it late in March 1940. Shown 

 to several particif)ants in the Wildlife Tours undertaken in that re- 

 gion during the early part of 1940 by the Audubon Association, it 

 never failed to elicit the greatest interest. Flickers and bluebirds, 

 as well as a red-bellied woodpecker, were also using this avian 

 apartment house. I have had it reported that martins use the hol- 

 lows in very old cypresses in some of the large river swamps of South 

 Carolina, along with chimney swifts, which is certainly very likely, 

 though I have not seen this association personally. 



Today, the purple martin is unknown to the great majority of 

 people in this country except as a dooryard bird. Its popularity is 

 tremendous, and nesting houses throughout the various States must 

 run into the thousands. It is not a "choosy" species as regards the 

 type of box, for anything from a boy-manufactured cigar-box home 

 to the most elaborate miniature mansion is utilized, and, in the South 

 at least, the martin is as partial to gourds as anything else. The 

 number of rooms in a martin house is simply up to the owner who 

 maintains it, these vary from 1 to 20 or 30 as a rule, but some houses 

 have as many as 200. 



