1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. I99 



chickadees in the woods not far away, I first attracted them 

 to the house in winter by putting out food, then I put up a few 

 boxes near the house in the hope that the chickadees might use 

 them. As spring approached all the hollow trees and decayed 

 stumps that might be chosen as nesting places by these birds 

 within a radius of many rods of the house were cut down. 

 Soon a pair of chickadees began to build a nest in what we 

 called an observation box, w^hich had been attached to the sill 

 of an upper window. This was made after a pattern which I 

 began using thirty years ago, and is illustrated here. The large 

 door is kept closed until the birds have nested and the young 

 have hatched, after which it may be opened at will, and all 

 the family affairs of the birds may be observed through a pane 

 of glass which is inserted in the rabbet into which the door 

 closes. This box is quite safe for the young birds, as the hot 

 sun cannot shine into it, and they cannot be seen, except from 

 the window on the stool of which the box is fastened. Seven 

 young were reared from this nest the first season, and other 

 broods have been graduated from it since. Another box on a 

 near-by apple tree has become the nursery of several more 

 broods. Still another box was fastened to the frame of a 

 kitchen window within a few feet of a door opening outward. 

 A quantity of cotton was placed in this box, in the belief that 

 it would form a warm nest for the birds on cold winter nights, 

 and we thought that one or more of them occupied it at times. 

 Early in the spring a pair of chickadees began carrying cot- 

 ton out of this box. Day after day they worked industriously, 

 but did not appear to make any use of the cotton. Finally it 

 became evident that they were merely digging out of the cot- 

 ton a hole for a nest, as most of the cotton taken out was car- 

 ried to a neighboring pear tree and either thrown to the breeze 

 or left hanging on the twigs. So the little birds continued to 

 work day after day until they had hollowed out a neat white 

 nest in the midst of the cotton. Then they lined it with a few 

 threads, hairs and feathers, and the female deposited ten eggs, 

 from nine of which young birds were afterward hatched and 

 reared. As the box had a door that could be opened, the little 

 mother could be watched from the kitchen a very few feet 

 away. She seemed as interested in our housekeeping as we 

 were in hers. When the young were hatched, however, she 

 had no time to indulge her curiosity, for it required trips aver- 



