82 ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 



time they are not sleeping or caring for their young. 

 One flicker was found who had in his stomach five 

 thousand ants; a nighthawk ate at one time sixty 

 grasshoppers, and a bobwhite (Fig. 51) ate seven- 

 teen hundred seeds of weeds for one meal. 



Making Friends of Birds. Birds may be coaxed 

 to stay near the house and garden by protecting 

 them from cats and bird-dogs and by making nest- 

 ing easy for them. One kind-hearted farmer built 

 a home for a wren. It was a box six inches square 

 and about eight inches high. He put a little perch 

 on the front and an entrance hole only one inch 

 across, so the sparrows could not get in. He did 

 not paint it, but left it wood color, for birds do not 

 like bright-colored dwellings. The same little wren 

 came on the fifth day of May every year for seven 

 years and kept house in it. Martins and bluebirds 

 also settled down in his bird houses. (Fig. 52.) The 

 farmer's wife coaxed the orioles to build their 

 strange little pouch nests on the limbs of their elm 

 trees, by putting out yarn and cotton twine on the 

 bushes in the nesting season. Covered arbors were 

 made and vines allowed to grow to make sheltered 

 places for rearing their young. 



Sharing with the Birds. A big mulberry tree in 

 the garden furnished food for many songsters as 

 well as plenty of pies for the farmer's family. On 

 top of posts in the yard, out of the reach of cats, were 

 shallow dishes which provided water for the birds; 

 and the farmer left an opening under the eaves of 



