a 
Decrease of the Purple Martin. 
For the Maine Sportsman. 
L. W. Robbins of Gardiner, in speaking of the decrease of 
the purple martin, does not think they have been driven away 
by the Eugiish sparrow. They have been leaving here for ten 
years or more, and I have been looking sharply after the cause. 
The English sparrow gets possession of the boxes before the 
arrival of the martins in the spring, and many of them used 
to nest together in the same boxes, but kept fighting all the 
time. Unless the martins keep a strict watch, the sparrows 
will steal their nest material and they will take the chick mar- 
tins by the neck and drop them to the ground to feed the cats 
I have found four little chicks at one time of the martins on 
the ground after a fight. A piece of lath nailed over the holes 
in the boxes as soon as the martins leave in August and not 
take them off until about the time they return in the spring 
will keep them for a time, but they will not nest long where 
they have to fight the sparrows. Out of the dozens of mar- 
tin houses in this vicinity 1 only know of one that had martins 
last year, and that one not one-fourth the oldtime number. I 
used to see purple martins breeding in holes of trees in Califor- 
nia, and I suppose our birds now go to the forest and breed in 
holes like woodpeckers. Gf.o. A. Boardman. 
Calais, Jan’y 19, 1897. 
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