ORNITHOLOGY 



159 



gether thirty eggs of this "rat of the 



air 



July first shows this sad situation — ■ 

 fifteen boxes, with varying entrance 

 holes from wrens to flickers — ALL 

 EMPTY. 



From early Spring, we have carried 

 on a crusade of sparrow extermination, 

 by means of traps and shooting. The 

 former we confess, were a failure, and 



TWO STUDIES OF THE WREX HOUSE. 



shooting but little better. We have 

 killed over three hundred English spar- 

 rows in twelve months, but this has 

 not discouraged those that have remain- 

 ed to raise big families. 



One incident has helped to make us 

 forget our disappointment. On May 

 3rd we noticed the English sparrows, 

 half a dozen or more, chasing a pair of 

 wrens that were examining a box used 

 by wrens last year. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the 



box was only nine feet away from the 

 house, and had an entrance hole of but 

 one inch, the sparrows were successful 

 in driving the wrens away. 



The next few days we noticed the 

 same, or so we believe, pair of wrens 

 still about the garden. 



Hoping we might persuade these 

 merry little birds to stay with us during 

 the summer, we took a small wooden 

 box of thin wood ; nailed a shingle on 

 top ; a cleat on the back ; cut a three- 

 quarters of an inch hole in the front 

 near ;he top, and nailed the box to the 

 trunk of a maple about eight feet up— 

 the entire work occupying about thirty 

 five minutes. 



The wrens built in this box, and now 

 July 13th, are busily feeding their 

 young with insects and grubs gleaned 

 from the nearby garden. 



Fifteen carefully made and properly 

 placed boxes unoccupied, and one 

 quickly and carelessly made, occupied 

 almost immediately by the happiest of 

 all birds — the house wren. 



These photographs show the male 

 wren about to enter his home. Had we 

 known that this box would be the only 

 one available for photographs, we would 

 have placed it more advantageously 

 with regard to proper lighting. 



Is there any new discovery or inven- 

 tion which will assist us to exterminate 

 the sparrow from our immediate vicin- 

 ity? We do not want to go through 

 another summer without the presence 

 of a family of bluebirds. 



Homes for Purple Martins. 



Youngstown, Ohio. 

 To the Editor : 



The efficiency of bird houses in in- 

 creasing the number of birds even in 

 thickly settled communities has been 

 demonstrated in this locality. With the 

 increasing population of the rural dis- 

 tricts in northeastern Ohio, little at- 

 tention has been paid to the birds, with 

 the result that purple martins have be- 

 come comparatively scarce. In the last 

 three years, residents of Youngstown, 

 of their own accord, and following no 

 regular campaign or set plan, have 

 been building bird houses in the yards. 

 One of the largest is within a few feet 

 of a city fire station. Beginning late in 

 July, and for several weeks afterward, 

 observers saw large flocks of purple 



