J^otes from JTteld and ^tudp 



Sparrow Proof Houses 



Mr. D. R. Geery, of Greenwich, Conn., 

 sends us descriptions of the two bird- 

 houses here figured. When designed for 

 Bluebirds, they should be suspended from 



Made of rough boards. Size, 6 inches high, 5^ inches 

 square at the bottom, 3% inches square at the top. 



a limb ten or twelve feet from the ground, 

 in such a manner as to allow them to 

 swing slightly. Mr. Geery writes: "It 

 may happen that the Sparrows will go to 

 these houses and even commence to build, 

 but, as soon as they find that they swing 

 and are not firm, they will abandon them 



Made from a bark-covered log, 8 inches long and 8 inches in 

 diameter, a hole 5 inches in diameter being bored from end 

 to end, leaving an outer wall ij^ inches thick. 



entirely. Wren boxes should 'be station- 

 ary, with an opening not much larger than 

 a twenty-five-cent piece, and placed so as 

 to be well shaded most of the day." 



A Musical Woodpecker 



In the pursuit of my profession I had 

 occasion for some time to travel over a 

 certain road, along which is a telephone 

 line, the glass insulators of which are 

 placed on short pieces of hard wood which 

 are nailed directly to the post. 



Probably half a dozen times, when on 

 this road, I saw a male Downy Woodpecker 

 perched directly beneath the hard wood 

 block, pecking at it in a manner to make 

 the wire ring, then pausing and evidently 

 listening to the music it had produced. 



When the vibration ceased the per- 

 formance was repeated and continued at 

 intervals until I was obliged to drive by 

 and frighten the bird away. — Dr. D. L. 

 Burnett, South Royaltoyi, Vt. 



An Ornithologist at San Juan 



An English newspaper correspondent, 

 who called at the American Museum of 

 Natural History to identify certain birds 

 which he had seen in Cuba, gave an in- 

 teresting illustration of how, under the 

 most adverse circumstances, an enthusias- 

 tic naturalist may exercise his powers of 

 observation. He said, "I noticed at San 

 Juan a bird which seemed to be much 

 alarmed by the firing. He hopped from 

 the bushes to the lower branches of trees, 

 and then, limb by limb, reached the tree 

 tops," and continued with a readily iden- 

 tifiable description of the singular Cuban 

 Cuckoo, locally known as Arriero {Saiiro- 

 Ihci-a jnoiiiii). 



There is one bird in Cuba, the Turkey 

 Buzzard or Vulture, of which many of our 

 soldiers probably retain a too vivid recol- 

 lection, but how many of the men who 

 were at San Juan can recall any other bird 

 observed during the day of battle ? 



(60) 



