Bird Baths 227 



the desired "footing" in a bird bath, and a slip- 

 pery pan or dish can be rendered safe by placing 

 in it a freshly-cut sod, having about half an inch 

 of the grass submerged. This makes a wet spot 

 such as many of the small birds are very fond 

 of. 



Concrete is very useful for the construction 

 of pools for the comfort of birds; it may be used 

 alone as in the case of a bird bath in my own 

 garden, or in connection with natural rock crop- 

 ping out above the earth, as seen in the photo- 

 graph of Mr. Kennard's little pool, opposite. 

 The former was made as follows : I scooped out 

 in the lawn an elliptical hollow, four feet by 

 three feet six inches, the sides sloping down in all 

 directions toward the centre where the depth was 

 four or five inches. I now took some Portland 

 cement and some course sand and mixed in the 

 proportion of one of cement to four of sand, 

 adding just enough water to give it the consist- 

 ency of common mortar. Then, with my hand, 

 I plastered it all over the surface of the hollow, 

 putting in enough to make the depth at the 

 center about two and a half inches. I was care- 

 ful not to make the sides too smooth, though the 

 concrete itself gives an excellent foothold for the 

 birds. We have no running water in this ; about 

 once a week we sweep the water out with a stiff 



