396 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



might be possible iu a few years to re-establish the birds in 

 something like their former numbers, but again disaster has 

 overtaken them. Many martins came in 1914 to Concord, Mas- 

 sachusetts, the scene of Edward L. Parker's successful attempt 

 to establish a colony in 1912, recorded in my annual report for 

 1913. By watching his bird houses closely I became aware of 

 a calamity which probably overtook most of the martin colonies 

 in Massachusetts. 



Late in June, 1914, I went to this colony and made an at- 

 tempt to photograph the birds in such a way as to show the 

 character of their food. Photographing was attempted by put- 

 ting up two ladders lashed together, and raising a camera on 

 the upper round of the ladder. During the first day, however, 

 the birds did not come near the camera until late afternoon. 



On June 30 the martins, having become accustomed to the 

 camera, brought numerous insects, coming every few seconds 

 with food for the young. There were between 30 and 40 birds 

 in the colony. It was a wonderful sight to see at least 30 birds 

 constantly coming and going, — sailing up to their nests with 

 insects packed in their bills and mouths. Most of them came to 

 the house under observation. Two or three pairs were nesting 

 in another house. Among the insects recognized were the cab- 

 bage butterfly, an Argynnis butterfly (frittilary) and many in- 

 sects with transparent wings. Cutworm moths were brought 

 and moths of other species which could not be identified. 



In order to get the camera closer to the birds and get larger 

 pictures, I moved the ladder within three feet of the house and 

 left a potato hook covered with a cloth to represent the camera. 

 This was lashed to the top of the ladder in the same position that 

 the cloth-covered camera had occupied, and remained there for 

 several days, during which I occasionally came and attempted to 

 photograph the birds, but was unable to accomplish much on 

 account of rainy or cloudy weather. 



Finally, on Saturday, July 4, the clouds being light, several 

 pictures were secured at close range, showing the birds with in- 

 sects in their bills. These insects were mostly dragon flies, as 

 the weather had been very cold and more or less stormy, and 

 the dragon flies, being numb with cold, were easily taken by the 



