478 BOARD OF AGKICULTUliE. [Pub. Doc. 



for years, says the birds are all gone. Miss M. S. Doran 

 of Lexington says the martins there are all o-one. We have 

 not a single report of a living martin in Middlesex or Essex 

 County after June 2.5. 



Turning now to the country south of Boston, we find 

 similar reports. Mr. William R. I>,ord of Rockland states 

 that all the martins of that town and Hanover are dead. 

 Several people report the number of dead adults, as well as 

 3'oung. The bodies were found in the bird boxes and in 

 the fields. A colony- in Wareham, one in Carver and two 

 in Marion are believed to have succumbed. Martins have 

 disappeared from Stoughton, South Walpole, Hanson and 

 Mashpee ; but Mr. Bangs reports seeing one or two birds at 

 Wareham after the storm, and Mr. Mosher thinks that some 

 survived at Dartmouth. 



Mr. Tngalls reports from Worcester County that two large 

 colonies disappeared, and no birds have since been seen. 

 Mr. C. K. Reed at Worcester made inquiries of several people 

 who had martin boxes, and the}^ all reported no martins 

 left. iNlr. C. A. Reed reports "young in one house of ten 

 l)airs all died, one old bird dead in the house." Mr. Loring 

 Coes reports that the martins have all disappeared. Mr. 

 Perry reports " no martins bred." Mr. Jesse Allen at Oak- 

 ham says that one l)rood of martins matured. All this 

 would seem to indicate that in Worcester County a few 

 martins may have survived. 



Mr. Robert O. Morris of Springfield says he knows of 

 none that were nesting late last season. Most other observ- 

 ers from western Massachusetts re})ort fi'w or no martins, 

 and in some cases none have been seen for years. 



The catastrophe which has befaHcn the martins of eastern 

 Massachusetts has no parallel in recent years. So far as 

 records are concerned, it appears to be unprecedented in 

 severity. 



Tn 1864 Prof. John L. Russell of Salem wrote that the 

 purple martin was then very rare in that vicinity, as a long, 

 cold I'ain storm, together with a consequent lack of food, had 

 killed thcnn by scores, and \-cry few were seen afterward.* 

 Possibly this storm may have been generally destru('tiv(\ 



* Report, United States Department of Agriculture, 1864, p. 354. 



