ORNITHOLOGY 



355 



THE WREN OR 

 BLUE-BIRD 

 HOUSE. 



"There are two very important ad- 

 vatages in attracting this sociable bird. 

 One is the fact that martins once won 

 are always your friends. They return 

 faithfully every year. I band my birds. 

 I know that they go far South every 

 fall — martins spend the winter in the 

 Bermudas or in South America — and 

 vet the same birds come to me every 

 spring and this in spite of the fact that 

 there are six houses just like mine and 

 each with its colony of birds — within a 

 block of my place in 

 Evanston, 111. Faith- 

 fulness like that greatly 

 increases the pleasure 

 we find in having our 

 birds about us. 



HOW BIRDS SAVE FRUIT. 



"The second virtue is 

 a more practical one. 

 On my farm in Mich- 

 igan, where I have only 

 six martins, I find it necessary to spray 

 my fruit trees five times a year to fight 

 the insects. At my Evanston home, 

 where I have many fruit trees and 

 beautiful shrubs, 1 do not spray at all; 

 yet my fruit is perfect. At Evanston I 

 have 200 martins ; they take care of the 

 insects. 



"One day I found a female martin 

 which had been shot by a boy. I had 

 the stomach of this bird carefully ex- 

 amined. It contained more than 2,000 

 mosquitoes ,a large number of house 

 flies, May-rose and striped cucumber 

 beetles and several other kinds of in- 

 sects. My own experiences and those 

 of my friends who have won bird 

 colonies by my houses convinces that 

 the value of our native birds to fruit 

 growers is far greater than most horti- 

 culturists appreciate. 



p "'When I moved to 



Evanston there was 

 not a martin house in 

 the town. Now there 



?OR GREAT are fift y> and hun " 



crested fly- dreds more on the 

 Chicago North shore. 

 "My success with the martins led me 

 to design homes for other American 

 birds. I have succeeded in winning the 

 bluebirds, wrens, the white bellied 

 swallow and the great crested fly 

 catcher. 



HOUSE FOR TREE 

 OR WHITE BEL- 

 LIED SWALLOW. 



"My houses for 

 birds are all well 

 ventilated — an im- 

 portant point which 

 has been neglected 

 by other builders. 

 Our native birds 

 will not and can 

 not live in hot and stuffy places. They 

 demand plenty of fresh' air. My houses 

 are also easily cleaned. The floors of 

 every one — excepting the martin house 

 — are removable. This is another im- 

 portant feature. But so far as I know 

 the houses I build are the only ones 

 well ventilated and fitted with detach- 

 able bottoms so that they can be 

 cleansed instantly. 



"Every bird has its own require- 

 ments in the design, size and arrange- 

 ment of its house. These requirements 

 I have studied and answered by my 

 seventeen years of working experience. 

 No work I have done has given me so 

 great a return in real happiness. 



"My latest house is not exactly a 

 house — it is an English Sparrow Trap. 

 This is rapidly proving itself a great 

 factor in calling back our native birds 

 by removing their greatest enemies. 

 One purchaser wrote me that this trap 

 caught between 75 and 100 sparrows 

 the first day he set it out. It works all 

 the time and can be emptied once a 

 day." 



Report on the Bewick's Wren and the 

 Chipping Sparrow. 



BY KATIE M. ROADS. (MEMBER OF THE 

 aa), HILLSBORO, OHIO. 

 In this section of the country, insep- 

 arably associated with every suburban 

 and every rural home, are the Bewick's 

 wren and the chipping sparrow. All 

 are familiar with the striking character- 

 istics of the wren, its sweet, clear, bold, 

 loud song, its quick, active move- 

 ment and its manner of perching, with 

 its long tail upward and sometimes 

 bent slightly forward. Its nest is gen- 

 erally placed in a crevice or cranny of 

 the outbuildings. One might conclude 

 from its place of nesting that it would 

 be friendly, but not so, even the hun- 

 ger of the young does not dispel fear. 

 One morning a mother bird came into 

 our presence with her mouth filled with 

 fat green worms, but sat perched on a 

 limb until we retired to a distance. 



