4 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



exhibited in the window of a Main Street store. As this phase of bird pro- 

 tection work continues, it becomes increasingly evident that a definite 

 knowledge as to the requirements of a satisfactory birdhouse is still lacking 

 among many instructors in manual training and indeed among some bird- 

 house manufacturers as well. Bulletin 609 of the Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington gives plans and specifications for birdhouses. Some of these 

 are excellent, but many of them are too complicated and elaborate to be 

 effective. A better bulletin has been got out by the State Ornitliologist, 

 Edward Howe Forbush. Unfortunately, the lack of appropriation sufficient 

 for the work of the State Board of Agriculture has prevented a reprinting of 

 these excellent bulletins and they are not now obtainable. 



THE EASY-GOING The house wren is a little bird with a big song and 

 HOUSE WREN. a large appetite for insects. His presence in our 



gardens is greatly to be desired. While a common 

 bird in the Berkshires and farther west, wrens have of late years been scarce 

 in eastern Massachusetts. There is some evidence, however, that wrens are 

 coming back to the eastern counties of the State, and everything possible 

 should be done to encourage them. The wren is quite reckless as to the 

 site and proportions of his house, provided always that the entrance is big 

 enough for him. Wliile a wren may be able to squeeze into an inch hole, 

 it is far better to provide an entrance hole an inch and a quarter in diameter, 

 and the wren, like the chickadee, will readily use an entrance hole an inch 

 and a half in diameter, which is big enough for a bluebird or a tree swallow. 

 After that things really don't matter much. A wren has been known to nest 

 in a human skull, using the eye hole for an entrance. Wrens have nested 

 in two-inch water-pipes, in cows' skulls, in old hats, tin cans, and flower- 

 pots. There is a story of a man who hung up an old pair of trousers on a 

 nail out back of the barn, and of a pair of wrens that came along and 

 built a nest in the pocket. On the William Rockefeller estate at Tarrytown, 

 N. Y., a year or two ago one of the maids left a white cloth bag nearly filled 

 with clothespins hanging out in the clothesyard over night. In the morning 

 it was found that a pair of wrens were building a nest in it. The bag was 

 allowed to remain, and the wren family was successfully reared in this novel 

 birdhouse. For all this we do not recommend skulls or trouser pockets or 

 tin cans for wrens. It is far better to put up a simple, neat, attractive box 

 which will not be an eyesore in the garden or upon the lawn. The same 

 holds true of other birdhouses. A dilapidated tomato-can may suit the 

 bird, but it is no credit to the householder to have such unsightly objects 

 fastened on the trees about his place. Let us house the birds by all means, 

 but let us do it with good taste and good judgment. 



NEW BIRDS The tendency of the house wren to come back once 



IN OLD PLACES. more to eastern Massachusetts is similar to tendencies 

 shown by other birds in other places. In another 

 bulletin the movement of the mockingbirds northward was mentioned. News 

 of their presence in several other places has come, and it seems to be a rather 

 definite movement. In the same way the Carolina wren — a splendid songster 

 and a Southern bird — has been moving up along the southern New England 

 coast for some years. These birds are reported in southern Rhode Island 

 and about Buzzards Bay, and in several instances have been seen farther 

 north. Unusual birds come into other regions in quite the same way. There 



