. Gleanings from nature . ed into thousands. I had long desired to have a few Martins nest on ourpremises, but was discouraged from putting up a box be-cause of depredations by the Sparrows, which were plainlyevident at bird-houses in other parts of town. At last, in the spring of 1896, I decided to erect a boxfor the Martins and at the same time oust the Sparrowswhich nested about our buildings which might drive awaythe former. This bird-house, in which was laid the foun-dation for a large colony of Martins, was a fourgabled structure of twenty rooms, a central cupolaon top and a chimney on e
. Gleanings from nature . ed into thousands. I had long desired to have a few Martins nest on ourpremises, but was discouraged from putting up a box be-cause of depredations by the Sparrows, which were plainlyevident at bird-houses in other parts of town. At last, in the spring of 1896, I decided to erect a boxfor the Martins and at the same time oust the Sparrowswhich nested about our buildings which might drive awaythe former. This bird-house, in which was laid the foun-dation for a large colony of Martins, was a fourgabled structure of twenty rooms, a central cupolaon top and a chimney on each gable. It was erectedthirteen feet high, about eighty feet south of where my fa-thers box had stood years before. Eleven young birds werereared in this box that year, and in the third year anotherhouse was erected to meet the demand for nesting roomand the next year still another box was put up making atotal of ninety-nine rooms, and the colony continued to in-crease. A happy result since that year is that there is an. PLATE II. Houses Nos. 1, 2 and 3 of the Jacobs Martin Colony, from Photos by the Author During July, 1900. The two upper pictures were taken while thebirds were collecting on house No. 1. The cen-tral picture is from a snapshot as the birds tookflight from the house, and the lower views weretaken while a number of birds were resting onhouses 2 and 3. This plate was originally used in The Storyof a Martin Colony; and in the January-February, 1903, issue of Bird Lore, used it in his review of this was also used to illustrate the Authors twoarticles written for the Pennsylvania State Zoo-logical Bulletin. annual overflow of birds from my colony which go else-where to nest. In 1903 nearly eighty pairs nested, notwithstanding aperiod of cold, rainy weather the previous year killed abouthalf the young. A similar fate befell them again last sea-son, but it occurred at hatching time and most of the birdsrebuilt immediately and reared late broods
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