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OFFICIAL O RGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON 
One Year 25 Cents 
SOCIETIES 
Single Copy 5 Cents 
VOly. XII. 
PubliShed by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Madieon, Wisconsin 
Enteted as sec.nd class matter Aupus, 23, 1909, „ Madison, Wis., nndc, act Con(lress Marc „ 3 I87g 
SEPTEMBER, 1910 
NO. 
THE PURPLE MARTIN 
By Alfred C. Burrill, Milwaukee Public Museum 
\\ e are fortunate in Wisconsin to 
have so economically * important a bird 
as the Purple Martin quite common in 
many parts of the state. How many 
readers of By the Wayside know that 
it has changed its mode of life from 
I nesting in hoLow trees to bird-houses 
put up by man, so that if people neglect 
j t0 give them house room, the bird is 
a’most sure to decrease? The people 
who have discontinued keeping bird 
houses for them cla'm that the English 
sparrows have driven the martins out, 
and such people would rather take the 
| houses down than give the English spar¬ 
rows a chance to multiply. Do such 
people realize that Purple Martins may 
be colonized if they will not come back 
of themselves nor set up house-keeping 
in a region where no martins have been 
before ? 
The U. S. Department of Agriculture 
has ca’led attention (Biological Survey 
Circular 56) to more active measures to 
induce colonization. The fact that the 
martin loves its birthplace so well that 
it is very conservative about coming 
back every spring to any other than the 
home locality, gives trouble to those 
who would introduce it in a new neigh- 
I o 
borhood. The Circular says it is sug¬ 
gested to make “the transfer at night 
cf one or more martin houses, with both 
parent birds and nestlings, from their 
old homes to new ones.” This experi¬ 
ment was tried in the zoological gardens 
of Philadelphia in 1889 by Mr. Rob¬ 
ert D. Carson, who, by means of a trap 
house, secured a colony of nine pairs 
with 32 young from the grounds of Mr. 
Josiah Hoopes, of West Chester, trans¬ 
porting them the distance of about 20 
miles by train at night. When released 
next- morning the old birds deserted the 
young and returned to West Chester, 
f he temptation of the old home so close 
1 y proved too strong even for parental 
affection. Most of the young, however, 
were successfully raised by hand feed¬ 
ing, being fed chiefly cockroaches, grass¬ 
hoppers, crickets, meal worms, and 
piepaied food.” This is a mixture in¬ 
tended for insectivorous birds, and, ac¬ 
cording to Mr. Carson, was well liked 
by the nestlings and agreed well with 
them. -It consists of “dried and ground 
beef heart, maw meal, ground zweiback, 
boiled and mashed white potatoes, 
grated raw carrot and grated hard 
boiled eggs. Probably any similar mix¬ 
ture would answer equally well.” 
This points the way to the methods 
others might follow with success in es¬ 
tablishing coMnies. Perhaps one can 
