General Scouting Indoors 187 



See them there! Then 

 they began irrigating. 

 (Here he put a spoonful 

 of water in the centre of 

 the spines.) And then 

 a change set in and kept 

 on until they turned into 

 the Lone Star State." 



As we watched, the water caused the toothpicks to 

 straighten out until they made the pattern of a star as 

 in"B." 



BIRD BOXES OR HOUSES 



A good line of winter work is making bird boxes to have 

 them ready for the spring birds. 



Two styles of bird houses are in vogue; one a miniature 

 house on a pole, the other is an artificial hollow Hmb in a 

 tree. 



First — the miniature cabin or house on a pole. This is 

 very good for martins, swallows, etc., and popular with most 

 birds, because it is safest from cats and squirrels. But 

 most of us consider it far from ornamental. 



To make one, take any wooden box about six inches square 

 put a wooden roof on it (a in Cut) , then bore a hole in the 

 middle of one end, making it one and one half inches wide; 

 and on the bottom nail a piece of two-inch wood with an 

 inch auger hole in it (b). Drive in a nail for a perch 

 below the door and all is ready for a coat of soft, olive- 

 green paint. After this is dry, the box is finished. When 

 you set it in place, the end of the pole is shaved to fit tight 

 into the auger hole in the bottom, and the pole then set up, 

 or fastened to the end of the building. In the latter case 

 a six or eight foot pole is long enough. In some neighbor- 

 hoods it is necessary to put tin as a cat and rat guard, on 



