16 T H Be AU DU BtiOON (OB Usis ales 
. PURPLE MARTINS that nested on the farm have been forced to call off their 
-summer offensive against the insects because it is time for all of these 
birds to start their long flight to South America, where they will spend the 
winter. When these handsome and useful birds quietly disappeared several 
days ago, their departure was another reminder that, no matter what the 
thermometer may say during the next few weeks, summer has gone. 
The martin is one insectivorous bird that wants an early start on its 
long flight to the Amazonian forests where there will be an abundance of 
insects for food during the cold months in North America. It doesn’t want 
to be hurried on its migration, preferring, like several other insectivorous 
species, a leisurely “eat as we go” migration. 
Before their long journey gets under way, however, the martins like to 
held a brief fiying circus and early autumn convention. Under some mys- 
terious agreement, large numbers of these birds meet at different places in 
the northern states, give out with enough noise to make one believe they 
are swapping experiences, and watch the young birds practice their new 
flying routines in preparation for the trip to South America. We’ve often 
wondered where the martins that nest on the farm go before they head 
southward. 
We know of one of these convention spots for martins in southern 
Wisconsin near a large lake, and we found another west of Chicago on the 
Mississippi river. But, as far as we know, no bird student seems to have 
discovered pre-migration meeting places for martins that nest around 
Chicago. 
One of the men on the farm who watches birds a great deal remarked 
a few days ago that the DDT experiment which wiped out countless insects 
on the farm seems to have reduced the number of birds there. He pointed 
out that the feathered residents may have discovered all the insects they 
used to live on are missing as a result of the DDT offensive, and therefore 
have moved on.—“Day by Day on the Farm,” Chicago Daily Tribune. 
ves itl ft 
BIRDLIFE and its many curious conditions are becoming NEWS. Recent 
issues of leading Chicago, St. Louis and Des Moines papers have carried 
stories of several species illustrated with whole pages of photographs or 
reproductions of paintings in color. “Life magazine has had several articles 
on birdlife, all beautifully illustrated, the most recent being on the American 
or bald eagle, with illustrations from paintings by Roger Tory Peterson. 
And it is not only the metropolitan or national periodicals that now see 
their news value. In the Bloomington, Ill., Pantagraph of Saturday, June 1, 
which has been brought to our attention, are shown a number of photographs 
of a black-crowned night heron rookery which is said to have been occupied 
for the last 50 years. It is located in a grove of about eight acres which 
has been conserved for bird and animal life on the farm of Glenn’ Smith, 
near Chatsworth, Ill., and harbors about 200 birds each season. 
