65 



Interest in the Purple Martin Increasing 



With a slightly increased advertising field, during 1910, requests 

 for bird-house catalogues more than doubled, and likewise the sales 

 of Martin houses increased nearly one hundred per cent. A few of 

 these houses went to persons who bought Martin houses last year, and 

 who wished to provide for an increasing colony. Others were ordered 

 in duplicate for neighbors and friends. 



FIGURE S 



Style No. 1 house of F. M. Brooks, President of the Matchless Brass 

 M'f'g Co., Brooklyn, N. Y., erected on his summer residence 

 grounds, forty-two miles from New York City. 



An ideal place for a Martin colony; and one in which the atmosphere 

 will be cleansed of mosquitos, and the gardener and fruit grower 

 will receive silent but positive assistance from these valuable birds. 

 (See Mr. Brooks' letter, page 82.) 



The well established fact that the Martins are among the most 

 valuable insect-eating birds does not seem to be very generally appre- 

 ciated by the fruit grower and agriculturalist. An effort was made to 

 reach these classes through representative periodicals but with very 

 little success. 



Inconceivable billions of insect pests are destroyed annually by 

 birds, and yet the claim is justly made that, generally, birds are de- 

 creasing while insects are increasing every year. 



