The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1907-05-29
Birds Useful in the War
Against Cotton Boil Weevil
Continued from page ~

the most valuable of it's tribe to the
Southern planter; moreover, its habit
Of nesting in boxes provided for it
renders it's semi demonstration COM
paratively easy, as it's sociable dispo-
sition enables the size Of a colony to
be increased by the addition of new
quarters to practically tn: limit of the
local supply.
Where martins occur sparingly it
is not difficult substantially to increase
the number Of colonies simply by put
ting up additional boxes. AS the
settlement becomes populous, other
boxes may be put up a mile or two
away, and thus gradually the birds
range may be extended. 1t should
not be forgotten that the nearer to
the cotton fields the birds are, the
more weevils they will destroy.
The English sparrow is formida
bic enemy of the martin, as it is of
all swallows, and # a martin colony
is to thrive determined efforts must
be made to prevent this pest from
ousting the rightful owners and APP
propriating their boxes. The smaller
swallows are quite helpless to resist
the attacks Of the foreign invaders,
and soon abandon their homes for
more peaceable regions. But the
martin is a good fighter, and would
be able to hold it's own against the
sparrow hosts but for the fact that
in it's temporary absence the spar
rows kill it's young Or throw the
eggs, SO that sooner or later the mar
tin has to give UP the contest and
abandon the neighborhood
Martins are not at all fastidious
about the outward appearance of their
dwellings,, and a large gourd suspend
ed from the top of dead tree or a
pole, or any kind of a weather. ight
box or barrel, however rude, when
divided into compartments answers
their needs as we'll as the most costly
and ornamental house. The rooms
should be about four and one-half
inches wide, seven inches high, and
eight inches deep, with entrances
about three inches in diameter. They
will not build close to the ground,
having wholesome fear of cats and
other invaders; hence the houses
should be elevated from the ground
not less than IS feet Drinking water
is essential for martins and all OTHER
swallows, and the presence of a small
pond, lake, Or river greatly increases
the chances for colonization.
From the standpoint of the farmer
and the cotton grower, swallows are
among the most useful birds.
Especially designed by nature to
capture insects in mid air, their powers
of flight and endurance are unexce1led,
and in their own field they have no
competitors. Their peculiar value to
the cotton grower consists in the fact
that, like the nighthawk, they capture
boil weevils when flying over the
fields, which no other birds do. Fly
catchers snap up the weevils near
trees and shrubbery. Wrens hunt
them out when concealed under bark
or rubbish. Blackbirds catch them on
the ground, as do the kildeer, titlark,
meadow lark, and others; while orr
oles hunt for them on the bolls. But
it IS the peculiar function Of swal-
lows to catch the weevils as they are
making long flights, leaving cotton
fields in search Of hiding places in
which to winter or entering them to
continue their work of devastation.
Means have been taken to inform
residents of the Northern States of
the value of the swallow tribe to
agrieulturists generally, and par
ticularly to cotton planters, in the
belief that the number Of swallows
breeding in the North can be sub
stantially increased The cooperation
Of the Northern states is important,
since birds bred in the North migrate
directly through the Southern states