FRIENDS IN FEATHERS 



makes a splendid location for the birds, sheltered from sun and 

 wind. But it is almost impossible to secure pictures of it, as 

 the camera must always face the strong light of the east, south 

 and west, while the mill is so high that I have as yet devised no 

 way to reach a level with the Martin box. So every day through 

 summer the most wonderful groupings of Martins, circling the 

 mill or perching over the wheel and fan, tempt me but can not 

 be obtained. 



At the house on the wild cherry stump I have better luck. 

 It is not over twenty feet high, while a wire brace running from 

 one telephone pole to another passes very close. From the top 

 of a twenty -foot step-ladder a camera is level with the nest and 

 wire, the birds soon become accustomed to it, so it can be worked 

 with a long hose from the Cabin window opposite. 



In the year of 1905, the weather moderated for a few days 

 in the latter part of February, but I was amazed to see one Pur- 

 ple Martin fluttering around the windmill, or perching to rest 

 on the grape-arbour, looking weather-beaten and as if it were ex- 

 hausted from a long flight. It was scarcely to be believed, but 

 that night the gardener said he had seen it from the stable. A 

 few days later a tenant on the farm told me there was a Martin 

 at his boxes on the same day. This year sharp watch shall be 

 kept so if he comes again, I shall be convinced that the Martins 

 send out scouts to see if their quarters are all right. My belief 

 in this is so strong that last fall I refused to allow their box to 

 be taken down and stored in the stable until spring, for fear a 

 prospector should be sent to see if it were safe, find it missing, 

 and so become discouraged and take up quarters elsewhere. 



The flock arrives from the first to the fifteenth of May. The 

 gardener empties their boxes at the first sign of their coming. 

 They swarm all over the windmill and immediately the fight 

 with the dispossessed Sparrows begins. The past year we 



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