32 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



HOW TO MAKE A BIRD SANCTUARY ANYWHERE. 



By C de Blois Green. 

 Birds have their own httle quarrels and struggles all the 

 time but these don't matter a bit if only you can keep down 

 the vermin; and by that I mean keep hawks and the largest 

 owls scarce, crows and magpies scarcer still, skunks and pet cats 

 about as scarce as the megalosaurus, and squirrels scarcer than 

 anything which Nature has yet invented. Under these con- 

 ditions the httle jealousies and quarrels amongst themselves will 

 only lead to enough tragedies to give the birds a wholesome 

 stimulus in selecting their nesting sites wisely and in watching 

 over the eggs and young. Ordinary care may be a nuisance, but 

 birds don't seem to mind that. I remember working on a hillside 

 near Okanagan Lake in April last year. Two white-headed eagles 

 were building, or rather patching up their nest, and I had that 

 nest commanded by my transit telescope nearly all day and every 

 day -I mean I was seldom where I could not turn it on and take 

 a look. The second day they finished and went off on the hunt, 

 next day I saw a white' head on the nest. First egg, no doubt, 

 thought I ; now you can go oft' on another hunt till tomorrow, but 

 not much; when that egg was laid, ordinary care put in its 

 appearance and the old hen spent the balance of the day in 

 flying north twenty chains, then south twenty chains (a shght 

 flip of the wings gave her a close look at the egg) . Thence south 

 twenty chains, thence north twenty chains (sight of that egg, 

 looks all right). Thence north twenty chains, thence south 

 twenty chains (egg again), and so on all day without a halt. 

 Ordinary care seemed to me a bit overdone in this case, for I 

 haven't yet found out what possible danger that egg was in. No 

 common ordinary mortal baby was ever more closely watched. 

 The old bird must have known she hadn't left any pin sticking 

 in its leg, did she expect it to wake up and shriek for its bottle 

 every mmute ? The old birds had picked out for their nesting- 

 place a tree four miles from anywhere , and six feet through at the 

 base, without limbs for 50 feet. I stood at the foot of the tree 

 twice later and could not think of any way to get those eggs. 

 I certainly think she overdid it. However, perhaps, even she is 

 afraid of crows. But every bird is not a white-headed eagle, 

 some are humming-birds, and from what I can see, any relaxation 

 or ordinary care leads to trouble for most small birds. Apart 

 from the vermin, which is alwavs hunting them, there is the next- 

 door neighbor who covets come part of the house ; while the hen 

 kingbird sits on her nearly hatched eggs, two cedar birds may be 

 as busy as possible dragging out the bottom of her nest to build 



