The Audubon Societies i6i 



the time they hatch until they attain the wisdom of their parents. The birds 

 themselves search long and earnestly for a safe place to build their nests, 

 and in this fact lies the first great hope for the success of the city reserve. 

 Provide a safe nesting-place, and birds will find it and use it. It is also well 

 known that birds tend to return to their former haunts, and this further assures 

 a constant increase in numbers in these city colonies. 



In order to make the Mary Emery Reserve safe, a fence of special con- 

 struction has been designed, a picture of which I hope soon to have available 

 for the readers of Bird-Lore. It consists of channel-iron pickets, one and 

 one-fourth inches wide and six feet long, bent outwards in a curve at the top, 

 and riveted at the back to two angle-iron rails. The pickets are spaced one 

 and one-half inches apart. In cutting the upper end of the pickets to a point, 

 the metal splinters in such a way that it is impossible to grasp it without 

 tearing the hand. The fence is entirely efficient in keeping out cats and boys, 

 and, withal, is handsome and dignified. In fact, it has proved so successful 

 in use and so attractive in appearance that the Cincinnati Iron Fence Company, 

 who made it after the writer's design, have added it to their trade patterns 

 and will show it in their catalogue. 



The next essential, after safety, is the furnishing of proper nesting-places. 

 Our reserve is, fortunately, already a jungle of many kinds of trees and shrubs, 

 with wild herbs covering the ground. Thus many different kinds of nesting- 

 places are present. A number of Wren and Bluebird houses will also be put 

 up. In addition to the shrubs now present a number of berry-bearing plants 

 will be set out, — barberry, honeysuckle, mountain ash, etc., — providing 

 additional food for our winter resident birds. 



During the nesting-season, yarn, string, excelsior and other materials, 

 will be hung out and plenty of mud provided. 



Suet will be constantly provided on a central feeding-shelf, both winter 

 and summer. All wild birds eat it greedily, while the Sparrows care but little 

 for it. Many experiments with different kinds of food will be carried on, as 

 here Hes an important field for research in methods of attracting birds. 



Bathing- and drinking-pools are provided by a natural spring, but city 

 water will soon be installed, with an artificial basin. 



Both the food and the water will be supplied on a shelf attached to the 

 south wall of a specially designed observation-house. Classes may sit in a Uttle 

 amphitheatre holding twenty or thirty, and look through slanting windows 

 at the birds as they come to feed and bathe. A constant succession of birds, 

 l)0th in winter and summer, visit the feeding-shelf, and classes will be able 

 to see them very much better than on the ordinary field trip. Charts and 

 lantern-sHdes of the birds which frequent the shelf will be displayed inside 

 the observation-house. .\ photographic blind will enable photographs to be 

 taken, also. 



Constant super\-ision of the reserve will be exercised by the ornithologist. 



