) 
The Zoological Gardens. 
Philadelphia, January oth, 1904. 
Mr. Charles J. Pennock, 
Kennett Square, Pa. , 
Dear Sir:- 
I have been away from my office for some weeks and 
this will explain why your inquiry, regarding my attempt to 
induce the Martins to colonize in the Zoological Gardens, has 
not received attention before. I regret to say that the ex- 
periment did not result in the birds locating here permanently 
In the Spring of 1898 I had two swinging Martin boxes, 
each of 24 compartments, 12 on each side, put up on a pole 
near the office. No Martins appeared that year and, I may 
say, that none, as far as I know, had ever been seen in the 
Gardens. The following Spring, that of 1899, through the 
kindness of Mr.Josiah Hoopes, I had a pole with a cross-arm 
erected near his colony in West Chester, to which on March 
13th., I swung one of my boxes, at the same height and facing 
the same direction as it did here; this box was so arranged 
that by pulling a cord the openings into the interior could 
be closed. Mr. Hoopes kept me informed, first - that the box 
was tenanted, then that the old birds were feeding 'their young. 
On July 12th., I took an assistant to West Chester and when 
all was quiet, about 9 P.M., pulled the cord, lowered the box 
and brought it to the Gardens and by midnight it was back in 
its former position. At 2 A.M. I pulled the cord again, this 
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