five feet west of th old box and about forty feet from our 

 residence. 



The wonderful increase of my colony in three years, prompt- 

 ed me to provide still further quarters for the birds in 1899; and 

 accordingly when the birds came that year I had ready for 

 them the third and last house put up for their accommodatoin ; 

 and as had proved true when I put up the second house, the ex- 

 Ira room was needed, for the number of pairs in the colony was 

 fifty-three, sixteen in each of the two old boxes, and twenty- 

 one in the new. The census this year was taken on June 14th., 

 after the young had commenced to hatch. Sixiy-three callow 

 young were counted and one hundred and fifteen eggs. Most 

 of the latter were well along in incubation, though an occasional 

 fresh set and two or three incomplete sets were observed. The 

 number of young brought to maturity was over one hundred and 

 fifty and probably less than one hundred and seventy-five. The 

 location of the new box is sixty feet north of No. 1, forty feet 

 from our house and about one hundred feet from No. 2 bird- 

 house. The colony now appeared to be enormous — nearly 

 three hundred birds at the close of the fourth season was more 

 than I expected to secure when I put up the first house in 

 1896. They could not all get lodging in the ninety-nine rooms 

 when they came home in the evenings, so more than a hundred 

 roosted in the apple tree nearest the old box. 



A serious question now confronted me as to the future devel- 

 opment of the colony, should it attain such proportions as to 

 menace the cleanliness of the lawn. Indeed, it became apparent 

 that annoyance of this kind would arise if I continued to supply 

 room for the annual accumulation of birds. I therefore de- 

 cided to let the matter rest and erect no more new houses for 

 a few years at least. 



Sixty rooms were occupied in 1900, and after the young had 

 hatched, I counted two hundred young heads protruding from 

 the various nesting rooms. 



There were many more birds came to my boxes this year, 

 than got accommodations. More could have got nesting rooms 



