He gives details regarding the following species: — 



Cliff Swallow {Petrochelidon lunifrons). — Formerly abundant, large 

 colonies attaching their retort-shaped nests underneath overhanging 

 eaves of barns, warehouses and other large buildings, but apparently has 

 wholly disappeared. 



Barn Swallow {Hirundo enjthrogastra) . — Ahnost totally expelled by 

 the sparrow, great numbers of which have appropriated every nesting 

 site in the barns and other outbuildings. 



Purple Martin (Progne subis). — Mostly driven from towns and farms 

 by the sparrow, the large trees containing cavities that are left being too 

 few in number to accommodate more than a small percentage of the 

 number that formerly occurred. 



Bluebird {Sialia sialis) . — This also has been mainly displaced by the 

 sparrow, which has appropriated nearly all cavities suitable for nesting 

 places. 



Means of driving out Sparrows. 



For the benefit of those who wish to control sparrows about 

 their own homes some of the more common devices for ousting 

 these birds are given below, some of which have been published 

 in the excellent bulletins of the Biological Survey. 



Many people wish to rid their premises of sparrows or to 

 drive them out of bird houses, but not to kill them. It is 

 practically impossible to drive them from any premises without 

 continuous persecution, but they may be evicted from bird 

 houses by systematic work without killing any. Various plans 

 have been recommended, such as putting up nesting boxes 

 without perches or with entrance holes in the bottom, providing 

 a great plethora of nesting boxes or suspending them by wires. 

 None of these expedients is of any permanent value except 

 possibly the last, and that has not been uniformly successful. 

 Mr. Clayton E. Stone of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, puts up 

 in trees open boxes which seem to be rarely taken by native 

 birds, except an occasional wren or a robin, but are accepted 

 by sparrows and starlings. (See frontispiece.) These boxes 

 may be worth a trial. Nevertheless, the sparrows do not con- 

 fine themselves entirely to the open boxes, but now and then 

 occupy a box intended for other birds. Where this happens the 

 boxes intended for native birds may be so arranged that the 

 sparrows may be kept out, entrapped or driven out. A box 

 having an entrance not over seven-eighths of an inch in diam- 

 eter will admit house wrens and keep out sparrows; chickadees 



