I can't imagine anyone cursing purple martins.  Martins are beautiful birds.  Whoever wrote that article in an 1831 Columbus paper may have seen European Starlings going in and out of improperly cared for martin boxes.


---- Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 
> I've got expert confirmation of natural osprey nests in two more 
> counties: Trumbull and Summit. Clearly, these birds are settling in and 
> 'branching out' on their own. As for purple martins, the following 
> comments were included a letter to a local Columbus newspaper on 
> 9/22/1831: "I certainly do not know of any other way in which so much 
> additional beauty may be given to Columbus, as by merely taking down all 
> the martinboxes. The martin is a savage bird, beyond all question, and 
> to retain him among us may justly be compared as a badge of barbarism, 
> for we find that the Indians have always been fond of him.” So there.
> Bill Whan
> Columbus
> 
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