41 



PLATE XI. 



Misfortune which Sometimes Overtakes our Beloved Martins. 



A cause for helping and encouraging these valuable birds, 

 lest their numbers decrease and eventually be wiped out by some 

 dire calamity of the elements. 



Photos taken at the Jacobs Martin Colony. 



Houses Nos. 1 and 3 (latter in the foreground) as they ap- 

 peared covered with a heavy, slushy snow, April 9, 1902. 

 It had snowed during the night to a depth of eleven inches, upon 

 unfrozen ground. The morning dawned with a softening temper- 

 ature which soon caused the snow to melt, starting slushy torrents 

 and rivulets in street and field. 



Six Martins were quartered in each of Nos. 2 and 3 boxes, 

 and these would thrust their heads out of the little room entrances 

 and twitter. 



Sometimes these early April "cold waves" are attended with 

 a steadily decreasing temperature, which often continues for days, 

 causing the Martins to die of starvation and exhaustion. 



The other picture is from a photograph taken June 15, 1903, 

 and shows what sometimes happens to the Martins in mid-sum- 

 mer during a cold wet period. 



Only one brood of nestlings survived a three days cold, wet 

 spell of weather. The groups of dead birds were taken out of 

 their respective nest rooms in houses Nos. 2 and 3. Three adults 

 and eighty newly hatched young ones are shown in the picture. 

 Four other small young, taken from under one of the dead adults 

 succumbed after a few hours. 



Where the parents themselves survived this unfortunate pe- 

 riod they rebuilt their nests and brought out late broods. 



All the colonies in and about the town suffered the same fate, 

 their keepers reporting many dead adults and scores of young. 



