BY THE WAYSIDE 
31 
k . 
( 
A Plea for The Purple Martin 
. 
I wonder how many readers of ‘‘By 
he Wayside/ 7 have a colony of Purple 
lartins. For the benefit of the younger 
readers, some of whom may not be ac- 
piainted with the Purple Martin, I 
vould say that they belong to the swal- 
ow family and are the largest members 
if that tribe. 
The adult males are a shiny-black 
purple) color; the adult female and 
he young of both sexes are grayish 
>rown glossed with steel-blue on upper 
>arts and whitish on the belly. The 
’act that these birds build their nests 
: ind rear their young in houses built 
‘or them and erected near our homes, 
heir chereful ways and their graceful 
| light, make them interesting and desir- 
ible bird-neighbors. The Purple Martin 
breeds in nearly all temperate North 
America east of the Rocky Mountains, 
in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, In¬ 
liana and Ohio they are quite plentiful; 
md a bird-box, or bird-house, erected 
:or them in this territory would be likely 
;o be occupied. Martins are not par- 
icular about the appearance of their 
louses. Any old box, or a neatly 
:rimmed and painted bird-house, will 
)e equally acceptable. The only thing 
hat they seem to be particular about is 
he size of the individual nest rooms. 
5Tou can have as many rooms in your 
Martin-house as you desire for these 
lirds like to live in colonies ; and, with 
diem, it seems ‘ ‘ The more the merrier. 7 7 
[ well remember when I was building 
ny first Martin-house. I did not know 
low large to make the rooms. Finally 
1 concluded to make my rooms large 
mough to give the parent birds plenty 
if room allowing some for the young 
birds. In fact, I made them ten bv 
7 v 
twelve inches and eight inches high. 
Result—Not a single pair of Martins 
nested in that bird-house that season. 
The next year I had studied the habits 
of the birds more and, after examining 
many bird-houses, with which the birds 
seemed pleased, I remodeled the house 
of the year before and made sixteen 
rooms where there had been eight. The 
Martins patronized this house better; 
and twelve of the sixteen’ rooms were 
occupied. 
Make each room six inches square and 
seven inches high, or five and one-lialf 
inches wide and seven, inches from 
frcnt to rear and seven inches high. 
The door-way should be one inch 
from the floor and two and one-quarter 
inches square or, if you prefer a round 
door-way, make it two and one-half 
inches in diameter. You may put a 
perch just beneath the door-way; make 
it cf board or shingle and three or 
four inches wide, or you may make a 
perch of No. 8 or 9 wire. I use this 
perch on some of my bird-houses and 
call it the twentieth cen ury bird-perch. 
The Martin seems to like it. It is in¬ 
teresting to see them alight on this 
wire perch and then give a little jump 
to the door. After the young are 
about two weeks old they are fed from 
the perch by the parent birds. Erect 
your bird-house on a pole, from twelve 
to fifteen feet high, in an open place 
free from tree branches. Have it up 
by the middle of April, but do not give 
up getting a pair, or more, of Martins 
until after the middle of June. If you 
are not successful this year, try again, 
and keep on trying until you are re- 
warded for your efforts. Last year I 
built a bird-house for each of my two 
little nieces. One of four rooms, which 
