Purple Martins on Stuart Acres 



FIVE YEARS OF BIRD-PROTECTION ON A MICHIGAN FARM 



By F. A. STUART, Marshall, Mich. 

 With Photographs by Dr. W. H. Rowland 



STUART ACRES is a tract of land in Eckford Township, Calhoun County, 

 Michigan, extending from the Kalamazoo River on the north to Upper 

 and Lower Brace Lakes on the south, and comprising altogether a little 

 more than two thousand acres of land devoted to general farming, fruit culture, 

 and livestock. The topography of the tract is sufficiently diversified with wood- 

 land, lowland, water courses and cultivated fields to make this section admirably 

 suited for both land and water birds native to this climate. Bob-whites are 

 plentiful except after severe winters, there are a few Ruffed Grouse and even 

 a small flock of Pinnated Grouse (Prairie Chicken) now practically extinct in 

 Michigan, besides a few breeding Mallards and Wood Ducks. 



Articles on birds appearing in the National Geographic Magazine in the 

 winter of 191 3-14 aroused the interest of the writer in the protection and con- 

 servation of bird-life in general and of bird-house species in particular. Late 

 in March, 1914 this early enthusiasm took tangible form in the erection of be- 



'AT REVEILLE." JUNE ig, 1918 

 (Q2) 



