Tee Be eAsUC DIU BON BU LiL Ber N 3 
I put up my two martin houses early this year—March 15—as we were 
having warm weather and it looked like an early spring. However, the 
weather reversed itself and spring came late, quite late. Some colonies 
arrived in Beverly Hills 30 days or more later than usual, and others didn’t 
arrive at all. Due to the unusually late spring there were considerably 
fewer martins in our vicinity than normal. 
By May 15 I had no martins—not even a nibble. A friend who had 
landed a colony in the neighborhood a few years before, advised that I tack 
up a few small mirrors on my houses alongside some of the holes. This 
had worked for him after he had waited four years for martins. So down 
came the houses and, with mirrors added, also a couple of pieces of copper, 
up they went for another try. 
The last week of May, along came a fine pair of crested flycatchers that 
immediately took to martin house No. 2. They seemed to enjoy hopping 
from one perch to the other, making a continuous noise with their wheep. 
The mirrors really intrigued them, and they frequently sat looking at their 
own image for three or four minutes at a time. At other times they would 
fight viciously with the image in the mirror, and always turn away in 
apparent disgust. The crested flycatcher is a handsome fellow, magnificent 
flyer, always on the move, and afraid of no other bird his size. They chased 
the sparrows and starlings from the neighborhood, and for a while I thought 
I had an ally. If I could not get martins perhaps I had better settle for 
crested flycatchers, so I thought. ‘ 
Then about June 1 I saw martins flirting with house No. 2, and saw 
them promptly driven away by the aggressive flycatchers. That settled it. 
By this time they had started to build in one of the compartments, so I 
closed this up from below, which puzzled them greatly. They immediately 
started another nest in the next hole, and after two days effort found that 
closed up. That, together with a little shooing, frightened them off for good. 
Then the martins came back and were with us all summer—not many, 
hardly a colony, but still martins. They, too, liked the mirrors and would 
stand gazing at their own image for minutes at a time. One of the martins 
had a habit of pecking at the mirror every time she came in for a landing, a 
sort of friendly greeting. Next year, of course, I’ll probably have both 
houses full; perhaps I’ll have to build another for the overflow. 
Which style would I build? Well, I really haven’t had enough experience 
to make a decision. However, I will say that when I cleaned out the nests 
this fall the bottom dump house was very much easier to clean. Except 
for that I believe No. 2 is better, but I should like to reserve judgment until 
I have tried them for another year. 
10331 S. Leavitt St., Chicago. 
ft ft Ft 
Ir I WERE to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say 
books, friends, and nature; and the greatest of these, at least the most 
constant and always at hand, is nature.—John Burroughs. 
