STUDENT DAYS 47 



erratic in their choice of breeding grounds, fond 

 of the vicinity of man, and interesting to a degree. 

 Hardly an isolated house in the South, whether 

 mansion or hovel, but has its colony of them. 

 These birds breed as far north as Connecticut, and 

 even Massachusetts, but only very locally, and 

 they are almost unknown in many areas. In the 

 South, a pole erected in a yard and hung with 

 some calabash gourds, having a round hole for en- 

 trance, will always attract them, but in the North 

 like efforts seem in vain. Formerly they were 

 common in New Jersey, but now are rarely seen, 

 except locally and as migrants. The English 

 sparrow is largely responsible for the exodus 

 of the martin. Both birds fancy the same sort 

 of nesting sites, but the sparrow being a resident 

 in the land, and the martin a migrant, probably 

 the resident has taken advantage of the old tradi- 

 tion that " possession is nine points of the law." 

 Alas for the former tenants of our bird-houses 

 with their gay song and lovely color ! 



During my stay in Coalburg, which was a most 

 agreeable one, a collection of some five hundred 

 birds was secured which represented eighty-six 

 species, many of which I had never seen before. 

 The blue-gray gnatcatcher, the Carolina chicka- 

 dee, the tufted titmouse, Carolina wren, worm- 

 eating warbler, the cerulean warbler, the yellow- 

 throated warbler, the large-billed water-thrush, 



