No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 261 



houses for others and sondiiif}; them far and wide. Every 

 one who is interested in the subject should read liis Gleanings 

 No. 2, entitled '' The Story of a ]\Iartin (\)lony," and also 

 Gleanings No. 5, " The rur])le ]\Iartin and Houses for its 

 Summer Home." He distributed martin houses in 1009 to 

 persons living in twelve different States and in the District 

 of Columbia. He states that about 70 per cent of the houses 

 sent out were occupied during the first year, and many of 

 them were put up in localities where previously the martins 

 had been seen only in migration. 



The unsuccessful attempts to attract martins given below 

 may serve as a warning to those who wish to try similar 

 methods. A wise man will profit by the experience of others. 



Unsuccessful Attempts to reintroduce Martins. 



Among the ingenious methods taken to introduce martins 

 from other States, that of placing their eggs in the nests of 

 tree swallows and barn swallows has thus far failed. Mv. 

 Owen Durfee of Fall River secured four eggs from Windsor 

 Locks, Conn., in 1009, which he put into a tree swallow's 

 nest; the eggs hatched and the young birds lived eight days, 

 when they all died. They were all about the same size and 

 appeared to have been well nourished. Two trees in the same 

 yard were sprayed on the day the birds died ; but ]\Ir. Durfee 

 thinks that the birds succumbed to the excessive heat. 



Mr. Chester S. Day secured four eggs from Mr. J. Warren 

 Jacobs and put them under tree swallows at his home in 

 West Roxbury, but the eggs did not hatch. 



Mr. Jacobs records, in Gleanings No. 5, several experi- 

 ments made by placing the eggs of martins in the nests of 

 barn swallows and tree swallows. It was found necessary 

 to remove all the swallow eggs, else the swallows would not 

 care for the young martins after the young swallows, which 

 developed first, had left the nest. In some cases the martin 

 eggs failed to hatch, and where they hatched the young died 

 from some cause before they were fully fledged. 



Tree swallows are so much smaller than martins that pos- 

 sibly they do not bring food enough to the nest after the 

 young martins have grown larger than their foster parents. 

 A pair of swallows might succeed better with two martin 



