Birds of the Cambridge region. igg 



after a rainy midsummer, many were found dead in their boxes." There is a 

 tradition — unsupported, however, by any conclusive evidence that I have been 

 able to discover — that before this happened Martins were accustomed to breed 

 regularly in Cambridge, including Cambridgeport.^ They certainly have not 

 done so within my recollection, although in 1868 several birds appeared about 

 our house in May and early June. Hoping to induce them to settle there, I put 

 up a box of suitable size and pattern. They visited it repeatedly and even 

 attempted to enter the holes, but were invariably prevented from doing so by 

 the Tree Swallows, which were numerous in the neighborhood at that time and 

 which quickly congregated and drove them away. In those early days Martins 

 were seen rather frequently in late summer flying over the Fresh Pond and 

 Longfellow Marshes, and in August, 1869, they established a small roost in a 

 maple swamp on the west side of Pout Pond, to which they resorted every even- 

 ing, to pass the night. 



Purple Martins used to breed regularly and in some numbers near the town 

 centers of Medford, Watertown and Waltham. I have not seen the birds in 

 any of these localities since House Sparrows became numerous there, but the 

 Martins have maintained a large and flourishing colony at Lexington (not far 

 from the Common) up to within a year or two. 



In 1 898 a single pair of Martins took possession of a box in Waverley. On 

 June 21 the female was found dead beneath it by Mr. Walter Faxon, who writes 

 me that " there were eggs in the nest, when she was killed," adding "none bred 

 there the next year, or any year since, as far as I know. I was told that in old 

 times the Martins bred there." 



Purple Martins have been steadily diminishing in numbers for twenty years 

 or more throughout most of southern New England. Nesting, as they do, 

 chiefly in the heart of cities, towns or villages, in boxes put up for their accom- 

 modation, they have been everywhere brought into direct competition with the 

 House Sparrows. Although these pests are much too shrewd and cowardly to 

 openly attack so big and fearless a bird as the Martin, they destroy its eggs or 

 murder its defenceless young whenever the temporary absence of the parent gives 

 them a safe opportunity for doing so. By such insidious means they often obtain 

 possession of the snug quarters at which they are ever casting longing eyes ; but 

 some of the larger colonies of Martins have thus far held their ground unaided, 

 and others have been assisted in doing so by a free use of the gun on the part 

 of persons who have been sufficiently observing and unprejudiced to perceive 



• In a passage which appears in the Introduction to the present Memoir (on page 26) Mr. Henshaw 

 says : " I am confident that I was told by my mother .... that not many years prior to the sixties there 

 were regularly established colonies [of Martins] within Cambridgeport limits." 



