WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS 



sheltered from sun and wind. But it is almost impossible to se- 

 cure pictures of it, as the camera must always face the strong 

 light of the east, south and west, and the mill is so high that I 

 have as yet devised no way to get on 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, and 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, and it can be worked with 

 a long hose from the cabin window opposite. 



Last year, 1905, the weather moderated a little for a few days 

 in the latter part of February and I was amazed to see one Purple 

 Martin fluttering about the windmill and perching to rest on the 

 grape arbor, looking weather-beaten and as if it were exhausted 

 from 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 about his boxes 

 on the same day. This year sharp watch shall be kept and 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 discour- 

 aged and take up quarters elsewhere. 



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

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

 They swarm all over and about the windmill and immediately the 

 fight with the dispossessed Sparrows begins. Last year we 

 boarded up the openings so that the Sparrows could not have the 



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