Aug. 26, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
335 
Purple Martins in Maryland. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A letter, recently published by you, from one 
of your Southern correspondents regarding pur¬ 
ple martins, prompts me to write of some of my 
recent experiences with these birds. 
Widely scattered colonies of them throughout 
the State of Maryland have excited my interest 
whenever I came across them, and when told 
that I could have a colony of my own if I would 
but provide a suitable habitation, I was incredu¬ 
lous because I had no recollection of having 
seen any sojourners in the vicinity of my home 
and doubted if they would find the box if it 
were erected, but since a house of special manu¬ 
facture was inexpensive and since a cedar pole 
to support it could be procured from the woods 
for the asking, I resolved to test the assertion 
of my informant and so, in April, 1910, the 
house was hoisted above the surrounding shrub¬ 
bery. 
Bluebirds and English sparrows liked it from 
the beginning; the attachment of the latter to 
it was intemperate, and by their persistence and 
effrontery awakened animosity upon my part. 
Warfare waged between us throughout the spring 
without a visitation from a single member of 
the swallow family to justify my crusade in its 
behalf, until late in June when I was gladdened 
by the appearance of one, then four, and finally 
six martins. They were evidently young birds 
and explored all the compartments of the dwell¬ 
ing house with interest, twittering and rolling 
out their few musical notes as though pleased, 
and although they displayed no disposition to 
nest, made themselves at home for a month 
or more despite the biting, scratching, buffeting 
sparrows, and then vanished. 
I hoped these friendly visitors would become 
permanent residents at the time of their next 
northward flight, but I was not gratified by the 
sight of an}' of them this spring until early 
June, when a lone male bird, almost entirely 
black, arrived in an evident state of fatigue. I 
promptly removed from the apertures of the 
house the obstructions that had been used to 
keep the sparrows at bay, while I rested a little 
while from my constant struggle with them, and 
he seemed grateful. Later in the day I was ex¬ 
asperated by noticing a sparrow engaged in mov¬ 
ing an astonishing amount of furnishings into 
an apartment, and as the martin was not in evi¬ 
dence and was probably searching for food, I 
shot the “undesirable citizen.” Unfortunately 
the martin was resting in the house, and being 
jarred and alarmed by the shock, took flight, 
and to my disappointment did not return. 
It seemed as though another season were lost 
by reason of my ill-timed display of feeling, but 
in July four other members of the martin family 
arrived. The house was new to them and their 
timidity was aggravated by onslaughts of the 
malicious, marauding, predatory sparrows, but 
finally they selected their apartments, and aided 
by my occasional forceful arbitration with a 
shotgun, took possession. 
Though the season was now quite advanced, 
one pair hatched out two young birds and they, 
being unable to fly until August was half gone, 
evidently gave the parents deep concern lest the 
mysterious call from the South should find them 
too weak for the long flight. 
Visiting martins came from hither and yon 
to consider the situation, and as many as forty 
or more convened at times to discuss the mat¬ 
ter. Flying lessons were given as soon as pos¬ 
sible, and it seemed that the entire martin tribe 
MR. LIPPINCOTT'S MARTINS. 
was engaged in preparing these youngsters, to¬ 
gether with those from other colonies, for migra¬ 
tion. 
The sparrows were so overwhelmed by num¬ 
bers and so completely ignored and sat upon 
by the chattering visitors that they seemed tem¬ 
porarily nonplussed and viewed the animated 
scene from boughs of nearby trees while biding 
their time. During the summer I watched the 
parent birds search the air for winged insects 
with much interest. It would seem that flight 
through space with an open mouth would afford 
rather a precarious means of livelihood, but 
the frequent return of the parents to the eter¬ 
nally hungry fledglings argues to the contrary, 
and I am prepared to credit the statement made 
to Forest and Stream some-years ago by a cor¬ 
respondent who said he watched a colony of 
sixteen pairs of martins from 4 o’clock a. m. 
until 8 p. m., and during that time the parent 
birds visited their offspring 3,277 times. 
Such constant combing of the air in the vicinity 
of a colony would, it seems to me, be of great 
assistance to the New England people in their 
attempts to eliminate the destructive brown-tail 
moth. Lippincott. 
Native Birds. 
To the great collections of North American 
birds housed within the American Museum of 
Natural History have recently been added two 
important collections, placed there on deposit. 
One of these is the property of Dr. Jonathan 
Dwight, Jr., of New York city, well known as 
an eminent student of birds and a director of 
the National Association of Audubon Societies. 
This collection numbers about 30,000 specimens 
and is of peculiar interest because it shows a 
great variety of phases of plumage of North 
American species. 
The other collection is that of Dr. Leonard C. 
Sanford, of New Haven. It contains about 400 
specimens, many of which are water birds, and 
includes some species that are very rare, chiefb' 
among the albatrosses and the petrels. 
Passenger Pigeons? 
Middletown, Ohio, Aug. 7. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: On the 3d of the present month I 
was at Gravel Pit, a mile west of Middletown, 
and saw fourteen wild pigeons. They crossed 
the Big Four tracks, flying very fast, circled 
the fields for a time and lit in a large whear 
stubble. I was in company with Charles May, 
a young man of this place. He was not familiar 
with the birds but wondered at their graceful 
flight. 
I am a member of the Forest and Stream 
family and have killed thousands of wild pigeons. 
They looked good to me. I will keep a look¬ 
out for them and notify you if they come again. 
E. A. Viceroy. 
Not Snowy Herons. 
Raleigh, N. C., July 29 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In your issue of the 29th inst. I note 
that Col. F. A. Olds records the presence of a 
pair of snowy herons on the lake at the Countiy 
Club, near here. This is doubtless an error m 
identification on the part of Colonel Olds, the 
chances being that the birds in question were 
little blue herons in the white plumage. The 
latter species is quite common all through this 
section in July and August, while the snowy is 
very rare indeed anywhere in the State, and 
has never been recorded at all from this region, 
at least, in the last twenty years. 
H. H. Brimley. 
Early Departure of Wrens. 
Canisteo, N. Y., Aug. 8 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: For a number of years I have built 
several bird houses for the house wrens, and 
they have always come within twenty-four 
hours of April 25 and departed with the same 
regularity about Aug. 25. 
This year they came on time all O. K., but 
left on July 25 or thereabouts. Has any one 
else noticed the departure? Is it the increased 
hot weather and dry season, do you think? 1 
would like to hear from our friend John 
Burroughs on the subject. M. M. Burrell. 
