EASTERN BLUEBIRD 239 



drain pipe, where they were stacked for use and some 6 feet high. 

 The bluebirds selected a pipe near the top of the pile." 



Bluebirds have been known to nest in a number of other unusual 

 places, such as empty tin cans or jars, in open hollows in the rotten 

 tops of posts or stumps, and more than once in cliff swallows' nests, 

 even in active colonies. Dr. Charles W. Richmond sent me, long 

 ago, a clipping (Putnam and Wheatland, 1866) which reads as fol- 

 lows: "At the depot, the signal master called the attention of a num- 

 ber of the members to a pair of Blue Birds which had built a nest in 

 one of the signal balls, from which a piece of the canvas had been 

 torn. These birds, after raising one brood of young, bad made an- 

 other nest, by the side of the first, in which they had laid the eggs 

 for a second brood. The signal ball, in which the nests were made, 

 was lowered and hoisted about fifty times a day. The birds flying 

 out as soon as the ball commenced its descent, and, alighting upon 

 the fence nearby, would wait patiently for it to be hoisted again, 

 when they would at once return to their nest. ,; 



Another railroad nesting site is mentioned by Charles R. Stockard 

 (1905); it "was the hollow iron coupling of a flat car which stood for 

 many weeks on a side track. The old style link and pin couple 

 had a long hollow neck and back; in this neck a Bluebird had built 

 its nest and deposited a set of five eggs." 



A. L. Pickens writes to me that he "once found a bluebird's nest 

 in a cavity in a steep earthen bank, some such a place as is usually 

 frequented by the rough-winged swallow." Dr. Thomas S. Roberts 

 (1932) tells the following interesting story of some very persistent 

 bluebirds: 



Many years ago there stood on the campus of the State University at Minne- 

 apolis two cannons, which were used every morning in artillery drill, and from 

 which blank charges were frequently fired. A pair of Bluebirds selected one of 

 these guns as a nesting-site. The nest was accordingly built but of course was 

 removed next morning. This went on for several successive days, the nest built 

 one day being destroyed the following morning. At length one morning the 

 cadet whose duty it was to charge the gun failed to observe whether or not the 

 nest was there and rammed down the cartridge with a will. When he tried to 

 fire the gun, of course it would not go off; so the load was drawn and an examina- 

 tion disclosed the nest and the female bird jammed into a scarcely recognizable 

 mass against the breech. Promptly the male secured another mate and the 

 following morning the usual nest was in the gun. This continued for a day or 

 two, when the cannon was stored for the season in a shed near by and a cavity 

 in an adjoining tree was chosen for the nest, where peace reigned. 



At least two combination nests have been reported. B. S. Bowdish 

 (1890) mentions a bluebird's nest in the top of an old stump that held 

 four eggs; under this in the same cavity was a nest of eight young 

 mice. "The mice had access to their nest through a small hole in 

 the bottom of the stump, and nothing separated them from the eggs 



