432 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



unusually early, from six localities. These were thought 

 to be some of the breeding birds which had escaped the 

 catastrophe of 1903; but so far as can be learned, they all 

 disappeared. Their probable fate may be inferred from the 

 story of Mrs. Frank H. Watson of Concord. 



JNIr. Watson has two large bird-houses which have been 

 well filled Avith martins for years, but, apparently, the Inrds 

 all died during the storms of June, 1903. Mrs. Watson 

 says that two pairs of martins came to the boxes earlier in 

 April, 1904, than usual, but were not seen during, or after, 

 the cold wave and snowstorm which followed the 19th, when 

 some five inches of snow fell. Later, Mr. Watson exam- 

 ined the bird-houses, and found three of the birds dead 

 within. 



Twenty-six observers from the different counties of Mas- 

 sachusetts report martins as having disappeared ; three report 

 them as nearly extinct ; five, as rare ; eight, as rare and de- 

 creasing ; one, "as usual." In response to letters of in- 

 quiry sent out later to these and others, it was learned that 

 nearly all the reports referred to migrating birds. Further 

 extensive correspondence leads to the belief that we have 

 no fully authenticated record of the breeding of the purple 

 martin in Massachusetts this season, except in five localities. 

 Mr. Robert O. Morris speaks of four small colonies in or 

 near Springfield, which are still in existence, but one of 

 these has decreased one-half in numbers. Miss Emily B. 

 Adams, also of Springfield, speaks of two colonies, prob- 

 ably some of the same, but says the birds are being gradu- 

 ally driven from their boxes by the English sparrows. Mr. 

 F. II. Mosher writes from Shawmut post-office in New Bed- 

 ford that a single pair of birds reared their young there. 

 IVIrs. Mary R. Stanley of North Attleborough, in the same 

 county, and near the Rhode Island line, says the martins 

 are nearly extinct there, but are still breeding at West 

 Attleborough, where her brother saw two birds feeding their 

 young. Col. John E. Thayer says martins are still breed- 

 ins: at Lancaster ; and Mr. William Holden states that a few 

 pairs of birds occupied, and probably bred in, one bird- 

 house in Leominster. Capt. A. B. C. Dakin of Concord 



