132 



AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY 



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BIRD FOUNTAIN IN A SCHOOL YARD. 



our towns and cities to their insect fates as soon as their early broods 

 are able to fly. If a constant and safe supply of water is provided they 

 will remain to rear a second or even a third brood. At any rate the 

 birds' nests about my place have increased almost six fold in the last 

 five years, and I think the main reason for this increase is to be found 

 in my bird fountain. 



I shall reserve the description of my own bird fountain for another 

 occasion. For this time we have the much more interesting case of a 

 fountain built especially for the use of the birds by the eiTorts of the 

 children and teachers in a public school. As far as I am aware the 

 honor of erecting the first bird fountain in the yard of a public school 

 must be awarded to the Downing St. school, of Worcester. 



This fountain is built of rough stones laid in Portland cement, to re- 

 semble as much as possible a woodland spring, and the children have 

 brought in ferns, mosses and wild flowers and planted all about it and 

 in the shelves and chinks of the rocks. x\t the top is a small pool into- 

 which the water runs (piped from the building) and from this it trickles 

 down into a larger pool among the rocks below. At the base on one 



