Another Purple Martin Roost in the City of Washington 



By HARRY C. OBERHOLSER 



OUR experience during 1917 with the Purple Martin roost in the city 

 of Washington aroused a natural curiosity regarding the birds' return 

 in igi8. Nor was this expectation doomed to disappointment, for the 

 birds appeared considerably earlier than in the previous year, and like the 

 city's war workers, in ever-increasing numbers. In many respects they were 

 so different this season that some further notes seem worthy of permanent 

 record. Comparison with their behavior in 191 7 can readily be made by con- 

 sulting the writer's account in last year's Bird-Lore.* 



As is well known, great changes have taken place in the capital city of 

 our country during the past year. War conditions have made necessary the 

 occupation of park space by temporary buildings. Several such structures 

 have been erected along 4th Street in the Mall, close to the very trees in which 

 the Purple Martins roosted in 191 7. Either on account of this environmental 

 change or for some more obscure reason best known to themselves, the Purple 

 Martins, likewise the Purple Crackles and European Starlings, abandoned 

 the former roost and chose a spot about a mile farther west, on 17th Street, 

 N. W., at the western edge of that part of the Mall called the 'White House 

 Ellipse'. The other surroundings are very different from those of 191 7. 

 Just across 17th Street stands the Red Cross Building, the steps and portico 

 of which afford an unobstructed and exceptional view of the tops of the trees 

 used as the Purple Martin roost. Indeed, the opportunity for observation could 

 hardly have been more favorable. This part of 17th Street has no electric car 

 lines, but is a favorite thoroughfare for automobiles and pedestrians. South of 

 the Red Cross Building, on the same side of the street, is the Pan-American 

 Building; and north of the former, but on the opposite side of the street, is the 

 State, War, and Navy Building, from which latter, to the Navy Annex, there 

 stretch, high across 17th Street, the wires of the naval wireless telegraph station. 

 Seventeenth Street is here lined on both sides with good-sized trees, principally 

 elms and sycamores. The Purple Martin roost was situated in a small clump 

 of thirteen trees, thirty or forty feet in height, all elms, except one box elder, 

 and standing close to the broad sidewalk over which some of them spread. 

 The birds commonly used only seven or eight of these trees, but, when an 

 unusually large number of birds was present, occasionally as many as ten. 



This roost was occupied by the Martins for the first time on July 19, 

 1918, and every day thereafter for more than a month. The daily arrival of the 

 first few birds in the vicinity of the roost varied from twelve to thirty-three 

 minutes before sunset — on August i, this occurred at 6.50 p.m. (actual standard 

 time), on August 24 at 6.32 p.m. and during the succeeding half hour the 

 number rapidly increased up to the time of entering the roost. A part of the 



*BiRD-LoRE, XIX, No. 6, Nov.-Dec, 1917, pp. 315-317. 



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