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BIRDS BUILDING THEIR NESTS. 
The Martins were busy conveying light layers 
of pine bark to the nesting places which I had 
provided for them. These agile birds fasten 
themselves after the manner of Woodpeckers 
to the towering boles of the pine, and with 
their bills detach bits of bark thin as letter 
paper. Out of this bark they construct the 
foundation and major portion of the body of 
their nests. 
The Martins are building earlier this spring 
than usual. Indeed they arrived two weeks 
earlier than I ever saw them before — the first 
(a male) reaching here the 12tli of February. 
About two feet distant from a pair of Mar- 
tins is an English Sparrow’s nest; yet the birds 
do not annoy one another. Apropos of this 
subject: Last year a little Martin house con- 
taining four rooms, each facing a different 
point of the compass, had three of its rooms 
occupied by Martins, and the fourth one by a 
pair of English Sparrows, all rearing broods at 
the same time; still there was no manifest con- 
tention among the birds. 
from the, Martin’s quarters, 
the branch, of an Oak is a 
is a snug nest built by a. 
Not two rods 
suspended from 
gourd in which 
pair of Bluebirds. 
$4. auly,188S 4 p. 
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Peculiar Nesting Place. Oil May 21, 
1880, Paul Hoffman, of Kockville, Conn., 
while out collecting noticed a Purple Mar- 
tiii enter the end of a hollow rail in a Vir- 
ginia fence. On examining the cavity he 
found the nest of the Purple Martin about 
eighteen inches in the cavity. It was com- 
posed of dried grass and contained four 
eggs. The opening to the nest was about 
four feet four inches from the ground. 
Our illustration is a correct representation 
sketched on the spot. O.&O, Vlll. Sept. 1 
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914. How Young Birds Are fed. By O. Widmann. Ibid ., p. 484. — 
Minute observations on the feeding of young Purple Martins ( Progne 
subis) by their parents. 'Fot\ Ss Stream. XXII 
943 - Where the [Purple] Martins Boost. By O. Widmann. Ibid 
Oct. 2,p. 183. -Many thousands, late in August, roost in the willows 
below St. Louis, Mo. The article forms a very interesting chapter in this 
bud s history, hitherto unwritten. For, <fe Stream, XXIII 
B f r Pur h’'schwalbe {Prague subis Baird, Purple Martin ) 
* 22 27 hu mg ' f ^ Z ° 0l0giSChe Garten ’ J a brg. XXVI, No. 1, 1885, pp.' 
22 27. — History of the species. J’ ii 
883 . 
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