be well painted so it will last, for after being once occupied the occupants will 

 return to it every year and they will expect the same house, and if anything 

 should happen to the house or if it were substituted by a new one you would 

 most surely lose your birds. 



Second. — The house should be so placed that there will be as little danger 

 as possible from that great enemy of all birds — the domestic cat. The best 

 protection against these bird fiends, as I call them, is a wire guard placed around 

 the tree, pole, or under the selected nesting site. 



Third. — The openings in the houses should be of the following dimensions: 



Martin houses, 2x2 inches or 2x2^ inches. 



Wren houses, {f- of an inch. 



Bluebird houses, 1}4 inches. 



Flicker houses, 2^ inches. 



Tree Swallow houses, 1^ inches. , 



Great Crested Flycatcher, 1^ inches. 



Chickadee and Nuthatch, 1 inch. 



Fourth. — Provide, if possible, one bird bath in a sheltered place, preferably in 

 some spot where you can have the great pleasure of watching the birds bathe 

 and at the same time protect them from the danger of cats. 



Fifth. — Proper height for houses : The purple martins, which live in great 

 families running from 20 to 100, desire a house not less than 16 feet in the air. 

 It may be higher, but must not be lower. I have a house for martins which has 

 26 rooms and stands on a pole 16 feet high. There are more than 100 martins 

 in this house every summer and the same birds come back to me year after year. 

 I know this because I band a great many of them. The proper height for the 

 wren house, which should be hung from a tree or projection from some building, 

 is about 10 to 12 feet. The proper height for a bluebird house, which should be 

 placed on a pole, is 12 to 16 feet. 



In choosing the kind of house you are going to put out you should consider 

 first the birds which usually come to your neighborhood every year. Wrens, 

 bluebirds, and purple martins are generally found in most neighborhoods and 

 these birds are very easily won to suitable houses. Robins can be attracted by 

 a sort of shelter shelf, in which to build their nests. Chickadees, flickers and 

 tree swallows may all be attracted by the houses particularly adapted to their 

 needs. The purple martin usually arrives in the central states about the end 

 of April. Martins, as you know, travel and live in great flocks, sometimes as 

 many as five hundred birds living in one house. This is one of the most sociable 

 and delightful American birds, because you can win so many of them to live 

 together. The experience of a Chicago bird lover is interesting and typical of 

 many others in attracting purple martins. He was pressed for time and put one 

 of my martin houses, recently purchased, upon the roof of a shed, intending to 

 place the house upon a pole later on. That evening he returned to his house 

 through an April storm of rain and sleet and was astonished to behold a flock 



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