146 



Bird - Lore 



male while she was sitting on the nest of 

 eggs. When the young are born they are 

 just like sitting hens, s cratching and pick- 

 ing my hand till the blood comes when 



creasing in numbers until last year about 

 sixty-five Martins left my houses during 

 the latter part of August. I would have 

 done far better last year but for the ex- 



BROWN THRASHERS AND THEIR BRUSH-HEAP HOME 

 Photographed by W. B. Mallory 

 [A pile of brush affords an acceptable nesting site to many thicket-haunting birds and induces them 

 to live near us. It may be arranged in a short time and made sightly by training vines over it. — Ed.] 



I come too close. — W. B. Mallory, 

 Lennox, S. D. 



The History of a Martin-House 



The Martin-house here shown is arranged 

 to utilize every available inch of space and 

 is 35 by 35 inches square over all, 5 feet 

 in height, and contains forty-five rooms. 

 I have two houses, the other one being a 

 small house of twenty-three rooms. This 

 house has been up for the past three years, 

 while the one shown in the picture in- 

 closed was erected last year. I have had 

 success from the first with my Martin 

 colony, starting with six pairs and in- 



tremely unfavorable weather conditions 

 which drove away at least a dozen pairs. 

 My main trouble from the start has 

 been with the English Sparrows, and I 

 believe that to this evil alone can be at- 

 tributed the fact that so few people con- 

 tinue to erect bird-houses. In this vicinity 

 there used to be at least forty to fifty 

 Martin-houses, and I doubt very much 

 if there are now a dozen Martin colonies 

 within a radius of five miles. I have made 

 inquiry of a number of the older residents 

 who formerly maintained Martin-houses, 

 and the invariable reply has been "Yes, 

 we used to have the Martins around, but 

 the Sparrows ran them off, so we took the 



