Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



sistant secretary ; and we are pleased to note that " all who have 

 an interest in local history are cordially invited to attend." It is 

 with pleasure and best wishes for a successful gathering that this 

 brief notice is printed in the Bulletin. Our members in general 

 should avail themselves of this opportunity, so courteously ten- 

 dered, to learn what this association has done and is doing in an 

 effort to locate and preserve an interesting historic site of former 

 social and civic activities on our island. 



The June Bulletin contained an account of a pair of 

 purple or "blue" martins, Progne s. subis Linn., which appeared 

 at Prince's Bay and started nest-building in the early part of that 

 month. As a matter of record it may now be stated that these 

 birds hatched three young -one dying in the nest from an un- 

 known cause and two being successfully brought off. 



After once falling from the nest, as the result of a prema- 

 ture effort to fly, the last youngster finally got away on strong 

 wings August 13th. For a week and a half thereafter the martins 

 returned each morning to the vicinity of the house, sometimes 

 circling near it, but more frequently resting on wires or dead 

 tree-tops. These gatherings included not only the birds that had 

 bred, but also from seven to sixteen visitors. After wintering in 

 Central and South American it is almost certain that, with the 

 return north of the purple martin in 1918, a strong colony of 

 several pairs will be established at Prince's Bay. 



Eaton, in his Birds of New York, states that the purple 

 martin is very local in its distribution ; that only one half or one 

 third of the villages and cities which were summer homes of this 

 species fifty years ago are now inhabited by it ; and that unless 

 protection is afforded against the English or house sparrow the 

 remaining colonies of martins will be extirpated within a gen- 

 eration. 



Staten Island probably supports a maximum quota of house 

 sparrows and in addition it is thickly populated by the European 

 starling— this bird often proving more obnoxious than the sparrow 

 (if that be possible) owing to his greater size and strength. Both 

 are cavity-nesting species and both, therefore, are apt to prove a 

 menace to the martin unless the latter be given human assistance. 



However, to undertake a complete or even a local exter- 

 mination of the starling or sparrow on Staten Island must be re- 

 cognized as a practical impossibility. No attempt, therefore, was 

 made to exclude these species from the neighborhood of the mar- 

 tins, but they were effectively controlled by being allowed to breed 

 freely in nearby nest-boxes better suited to their needs than was 

 the martin house. Only one attempt was made against the latter 

 — by a pair of sparrows -and when they had become established 

 the male was killed and the nest and contents destroyed. The 

 female, after remaining for two days in hopeful uneasiness, de- 

 parted -probably to seek a second mate in parts nnknown. 



H. H, c. 



