198 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



houses, the best plan is to imitate the design of some dwelHng. 

 A pretty cottage or country villa in miniature may be con- 

 structed. 



A house for a large martin colony ordinarily involves the 

 expenditure of a considerable sum ; but a very good house that 

 will accommodate a colony of ordinary size, may be made from 

 a flour barrel. The roof is of zinc, or of wood covered with 

 painted canvas. The house should be placed on a pole, at least 

 fifteen feet high. It should have several large rooms, six or 

 eight inches square, with entrances two or three inches in 

 diameter, that it may ofTer plenty of room for several pairs of 

 birds, and that each tenement may be readily inspected and 

 cleaned when necessary. A house of this size will accommo- 

 date so large a community of martins, that when once in- 

 trenched within, they will be able to hold their own against 

 bluebirds, or sparrows. The rooms should be so tight that 

 there can be no draft, and the whole house should be painted 

 in light colors, that the young birds may not suffer too much 

 from the rays of the hot sun. It is well to have the floor of 

 each tenement a few inches below the entrance, that the voung 

 birds may not be readily pushed or crowded out of the nest 

 and so become a prey for cats. Such a catastrophe may be still 

 further guarded against by having a piazza extending around 

 the house below each tier of doorways, and constructing a 

 railing three inches high around it. Each of these platforms 

 should have a slight downward slope, to carry off the rain and 

 prevent it from driving into the doorways below. In fitting 

 up rooms, a square box should first be made to go up the cen- 

 ter of the barrel. All the rooms will be backed by this, and the 

 pole will go into it. . 



Generally a bird will use a box much larger than it needs, 

 but it will not occupy one which it deems too small. For 

 chickadees, the hole should be at least nine inches from the 

 bottom of the box ; they sometimes use a one and one-eighth 

 inch hole, but prefer one an inch and a quarter in diameter. 

 The entrance should not be larger, for then the bluebirds or 

 swallows may use it. Bluebirds require a one and one-half 

 inch entrance, while a two-inch hole will do for martins. 



During the past few years I have been experimenting with 

 nesting boxes, in the hope of attracting about the house some 

 birds that do not ordinarilv breed there. As there were a few 



