THE PURPLE MARTIN 



boarded up the openings so that the Sparrows could not have 

 the boxes lousy and infested when the Martins arrived. That 

 seemed to delight the Martins, but it in no way discouraged the 

 Sparrows. 



From a back porch where a rack was placed containing print- 

 ing frames on which I was doing the printing of these illustrations 

 I watched a war which I was powerless to prevent. All day it 

 continued. The Martins took possession of the boxes, slept 

 there the first night and began building in a few days. When 

 the gardener cleaned the boxes this fall he said there was scarcely 

 anything that could be called nests a few dried grass-blades, 

 pieces of strings, rags and dry leaves. There was little time for 

 elaborate nest-building in the strenuous work of holding the fort. 



Every time a Martin left a door, in rushed a Sparrow and car- 

 ried away a piece of straw or string, or threw out an egg. Every 

 time the whole Martin flock left to bathe or go food-hunting, 

 they found a Sparrow head protruding from each door on their 

 return. Then there was a battle royal. Seven times in one day 

 the Martins sent a messenger to a flock occupying a larger house 

 than mine on the premises of Colonel James Hardison four 

 blocks away, air line. Each time the bird returned with rein- 

 forcements to the number of twenty, so the Sparrows were ousted. 



But if I could do nothing for our pets of the windmill, a 

 mite of help could be given to those of the bird-house on the wild 

 cherry stump. Day after day I mounted the step-ladder and 

 with a bent wire tore out Sparrow nests, until finally the Sparrows 

 gave up the house, locating in a large ash tree on a line with the 

 Martin house, facing it, and only three rods away. The Martins 

 fought valiantly for their nests, but with one exception, they 

 never went to the Sparrows' location and attacked them. On 

 the other hand, the brooding Sparrow would leave her nest, 

 if her mate were not close to harass the Martins, and enter their 



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