SUMMER BIRDS OF SHAW'S GARDEN. 79 



the Jewel weed cause the strangely white forehead by its 

 sticky white pollen. 



PURPLE MARTIN. PrOQUe SuUs. 



If bird houses were put up in the Garden, the Martins would 

 undoubtedly accept them with thanks, for nesting faciUties 

 are not too common in St. Louis, and open places hke the syn- 

 opsis are always preferred to narrow city yards. The best 

 bird houses are the inexpensive square boxes with a hinged 

 lid or rather two lids, nailed together; one which fits tightly, 

 the other a slanting roof. This arrangement not only sheds 

 the rain, but lessens the heat in the box which under a single 

 roof becomes unbearable. Ornamental houses with from ten 

 to sixty rooms are offered for sale by manufacturers of bird- 

 houses, but for various reasons single room houses are pre- 

 ferred by the writer, who has a long experience with Martin 

 colonies, having had at one time a colony of forty pairs in the 

 city. The occupants of single-room houses are easily watched 

 and when it becomes necessary to remove a sparrow's nest, it 

 can be done without disturbing others. Good boxes can be 

 made of one-inch white pine boards, well painted, a good size 

 for the room inside is ten by ten inches and six inches high; 

 the entrance, two inches square, must open on the floor, which 

 protrudes four inches to form a porch. On open ground 

 twelve feet from the ground is high enough, in narrow city 

 yards sixteen feet is better. For a pole a two-by-four yellow 

 pine sixteen-foot scanthng can be used setting it three to four 

 feet in the ground after soaking the bottom part in crude car- 

 bolic acid or hot tar. A colony may be started with one pole 

 holding two boxes, side by side or on opposite sides, and the 

 number of poles may be increased as the colony grows larger 

 from year to year. If the boxes are not occupied the first 

 year, they will surely be the second year. Martins are some- 

 times afraid of new boxes, but once accustomed to them, they 

 and their progeny return every year. 



CEDAR WAXWiNG. Ampelis cedrorum. 



The Cedarbird, as this bird is commonly called, is a visitor 

 of the Garden in early summer. When about the first of 



