Boxes for Birds That Provide No Nesting Material 79 



wing. We counted more than a dozen of them, sitting with perhaps a hundred 

 Tree Swallows on a certain leafless tree, whilst three more sat upon grasses 

 extending above the deep snow. To hear them chattering, their spring song, 

 happy and well-fed, perched some six inches above a foot of new-fallen snow, 

 was indeed an unusual experience. 



The snow is melting and windswept areas, where the snow was thin, are 

 already becoming bare. But it has been a severe trial. I watched one dis- 

 consolate Robin eating snow and a frozen grass blade. — Very Sincerely, Wm. D. 

 Carpenter, Xashotah, Wisconsin, April 24, 1910. 



Boxes for Birds That Provide No Nesting Material 



By FRANK C. PELLETT, Atlantic, Iowa 



With photographs by the author 



THE tree surgeon is abroad in the land. In the country, his presence 

 has made no material difference as yet. In regions round about the 

 cities, his work has been ver>' effective; so effective in fact, that, while 

 saving the trees, he has alarmed the bird lovers, who fear that his work will 

 destroy the natural nesting-sites of Woodpeckers, and birds of similar habits. 

 The most casual observer is familiar with the fact that these birds carve for 

 themselves homes in decaying trunks, or 

 limbs of trees. The removal of such 

 wood, and the filling of cavities with 

 cement, has the effect of depriving them 

 of suitable sites for nesting-places. The 

 woodpeckers carry in no material for 

 nests, but simply leave some of the fine 

 chips at the bottom of the cavity, on 

 which to lay their eggs. The Sparrow 

 Hawk, while not making a hole for 

 himself, occupies the same kind of 

 home, and usually is satisfied with one 

 that has been abandoned by a Wood- 

 pecker. 



For several years, the problem of 

 attracting such birds to artificial houses 

 has interested me. Naturalists of pro- 

 minence have said that such a thing was 

 unknown, and probably impossible. In- 

 stances of Flickers or Red-headed Wood- 

 peckers making holes in cornices or .^^Bif "t'h '^JSi^^PrBR^v 

 similar places are often reported. hawks. 



