THE PURPLE MARTIN 



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 with which I was doing the printing of these illus- 

 trations I watched a war which I was powerless to prevent. All 

 day long it went on. 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 Mar- 

 tins 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 reinforcements 

 to the number of twenty and 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 and located in a large ash tree on a line with 

 the Martin house, facing it, and only three rods away. The Mar- 

 tins 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 was not about to harass the Martins, and enter their box to 

 be on hand for a fight with them every time they returned home. 



105 



