1% mm es 
Photograph by Ernest Harold Baynes 
THE BEST KIND OF A BIRD ON A HAT 
recorded as having bred in nest boxes of 
one sort or another: 
Wood-duck, sparrow-hawk, screech- 
owl, flicker, red- headed woodpecker, 
great-crested flycatcher, starling, Eng- 
lish sparrow, house-finch, tree and violet 
green swallow, purple martin, house- 
wren, Parkman’s wren, Bewick’s wren, 
Vigor’s wren, and Texas Bewick’s wren, 
white-breasted nuthatch, tufted titmouse, 
black-capped chickadee, Oregon chicka- 
dee, Carolina chickadee, robin, and three 
varieties of bluebirds—eastern, western, 
and mountain. ‘To this list the Carolina 
wren ought probably to be added; for 
while I do not know personally of any 
record of its actually building in a bird- 
box, it builds about houses and in the 
most unheard of and crazy places. 
Robins and phoebes may be encouraged 
17 
by shelves conveniently placed beneath 
the roofs of porches, piazzas, and sheds, 
while the insect-eating barn and eave 
swallows may often be helped in their 
choice of nesting sites by a supporting 
shelf. Vines on trellises or about the 
piazza posts are attractive nesting sites 
for chipping sparrows, as well as robins, 
and I once knew of a bluejay that built 
in a wistaria vine overhanging a friend’s 
front porch. 
One can never tell just what birds are 
going to do. Crows are reported to have 
nested in one of the squares in the city 
of Philadelphia and on Beacon Hill in 
3oston, while a pair of sparrow-hawks 
have bred beneath the eaves of the Law- 
rence Scientific School in Cambridge, 
Mass. 
Chimney swifts should also be encour- 
