No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 259 



of the season at his box April 25, 1913, and a pair began 

 building on the 29th. For the two previous seasons they 

 had been coming to the box, but had shown no disposition to 

 nest. On the 28th of May he wrote that he had 8 martins in 

 the box, and the new arrivals commenced to build immedi- 

 ately. Also those that came early apparently had young. 

 Early in July there were young in the nests, and on July 24 

 some of the young had left. There are now flourishing col- 

 onies of martins in Concord, Hyde Park and Taunton, Mass., 

 and there are said to be some in several other towns. It may 

 be well to repeat what has been said in reports of the previous 

 years, that success in securing martins depends largely upon 

 having the rooms in the martin houses of the right shape 

 and size, and in having an entrance large enough. It has 

 been generally understood that martins require unventilated 

 rooms, but Mr. Joseph H. Dodson of Chicago, who has ex- 

 perimented with martin houses and has the attic rooms ar- 

 ranged so that the birds can go in at one side and out at the 

 other, says that the birds invariably build in the two attic 

 rooms first. This ventilation allows the air to pass through 

 the upper part of the house, but he states that all the rooms 

 in his houses are ventilated. During recent hot summers 

 many birds have died in unventilated houses, and ventilated 

 nesting boxes for birds of all kinds have given better results 

 than those unventilated. N'ew martin boxes put up early in 

 the season in localities where no martins have nested should 

 be kept closed until May, when the young martins or " new 

 settlers " have come. This will give them at least an equal 

 chance with the sparrows. "No sparrows should be allowed 

 to nest in the same bird house with the martins, for when 

 both species nest together the sparrows will sooner or later 

 drive out the martins. 



Recent European Experiments in protecting Birds. 

 Mr. William P. Wharton of Groton, who traveled in 

 Europe during the summer of 1913, paid a visit to the estate 

 of the Baron von Berlepsch, at Seebach in Thuringia. This 

 estate is now used as a bird-protection experiment station by 

 the government, and Mr. Wharton had an opportunity to 

 observe some of the recent experiments made there under the 



