178 
In making any bird baths, the first 
thing to look out for is the depth of the 
water. Few of the birds which will 
come to bathe will use water of greater 
depth than two and a half inches, and 
even for blue jays and grackles five 
inches is about the limit. But most 
birds will not jump off into any such 
depth, so if we had a pool with a uniform 
depth of two and a half inches, birds 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
popular with the birds, is made on the 
principle of a flight of broad steps, each 
one of which is two feet long and seven 
inches wide. There are five of these 
steps, each one-half inch lower than the 
last, so that when the water is half an 
inch deep on the top step, it is two and a 
half inches deep on the bottom one. 
The birds invariably enter the water at 
the top step. Their favorite steps are 
Birds will come from far and near to visit a properly constructed bird bath. Mr. Baynes has seen 
in a simple little cement pool like this of the photograph seven species of birds at one time: bluebirds, 
a chewink, a white-throated sparrow, a song sparrow, a junco, a chipping sparrow and a myrtle warbler — 
and at least a dozen other birds awaiting their turn nearby 
would come and drink, but few if any 
would bathe. So we must arrange for 
shallow places where the birds can enter 
the water; they will go in deeper 
presently, but they are very cautious. 
Half an inch is a good depth for the shal- 
lows and if the depth grades off to 
nothing at all, so much the better. A 
bath which the writer invented some 
time ago and which has proved very 
the second and third; they seldom go 
lower than that. The bottom is covered 
with clean sand and bright pebbles from 
a trout brook, and here and _ there 
among them are strewn beautifully 
tinted shells. 
Close beside the bath is a wooden tray 
of earth, on which are scattered every 
morning, birdseed of several kinds, bits 
of bread, a little suet, ripe raspberries 
