Progne sub is . 
Waynesburg, Pa. 
1900. Extract from a letter by J. Warren Jacobs to Rut liven Deane 
Feb .1900. 
f i send you) a picture of one of my Purple Hart in houses. 
You may not be much interested in it out I am sure you would 
be tremendously interested in my Hart in colony when they re- 
turn . 
A brief history of this colony is as follows: - 
In 1896 I constructed a house of 20 compartments and was 
much gratified to see five pairs of birds tahe possession. 
They had some bad luck and only 13 young reached maturity. 
In 1897 all these with the exception of one immature returned 
and at the end of their breeding season 38 young left the 
house. I now found that in order to keep pace with the colo- 
ny I must provide more room, so accordingly in 18S3 I con- 
struct ef' one 3 ' of 34 rooms which is the one shown in the photo. 
A 
I think 23 broods were hatched in the two houses that year , 
and such a "swarm" of birds I had for my trouble was a wonder . 
It occurred to me that accomodations for the birds would be 
insufficient for the returning horde in '99, and I accordingly 
doubled my efforts to provide nesting room. 
This time I gave them 50 more rooms, fashioning the house 
after the Pa. State Building at the World's Fair. 47 pair 
nested , bringing out almost 200 young birds. What to do 
£3 
