Biillitin No. 20. 43 



make a definite map of the ran^e of each species as I have planned to do. 

 It is possible we may extend the range of some spacies beyond the limits 

 now established. I particularly want * Northern Canada notes. Copies 

 of published lists may be of great use. Included with this part I have 

 some very interesting migration notes. From these I am almost ready 

 to say that the birds come north in a number of well defined lines, 

 branching out from these as the bulk pass on. Thus we find on certain 

 lines the migrations almost in swarms, and at places on the same latitude 

 only what are resident and these a few days behind the firsts at the for- 

 mer places. I need exhaustive notes to confirm my theory. 



It is very difficult to determine the nature of the food taken from the 

 minuteness of the particles. No one can doubt but they take enormous 

 numbers of insects, but whether injurious or beneficial, it is the purpose 

 of this investigation to determine. Nearly, if not quite all are taken on 

 the wing. I have determined that the Barn Swallow takes enormous 

 quantities of apple maggot-flies, a fact that will recommend them to the 

 orchardists. I would like to enlist a good entomologist to help me out 

 with this portion of the work. Who will be the first to offer his or her 

 services in the cause of science ? 



Everyone should provide boxes for the Martins and Tree Swallows. 

 For the former the concensus of opinion seems to be in favor of single 

 room houses, at least eight inches square and six or seven in height, with 

 a two-inch entrance hole in front on a level with the floor. A porch or 

 stool should be placed in front, say three inches wide. The box to be 

 placed on a pole eighteen or twenty-feet high. Some have large colon- 

 ies in pretentious houses of several rooms. The Martins are quite fastid- 

 ious in their tastes, preferring a well-made and painted box to a shabby 

 one. Not so the swallow. They care little what the style be so long as 

 it is sufficiently tight to exclude the wet. Rooms for these need be no 

 more than four by six and four or five inches high and the pole ten to fif- 

 teen feet high. English Sparrows and the House Wren are the worst 

 enemy the)'^ have, and nothing will hold them in check except poison, or 

 a shot-gun in the hands of a skilled gunner. No poultry yard should be 

 without a colony of Martins if possible to get them, as no hawk will come 

 the second time into the locality where they are nesting 



In conclusion I would thank those who have so kindly remembered me 

 with notes, and trust they as well as others will keep their eyes open this 

 season to the end that they may be one of a large throng to assist in the 

 preparation of the life history of one the most interesting families of 

 birds. 



Stephen J. Adams, Cor/n's/i, Me. 



