BIRDS IN THE GARDEN 



351 



couple of designs for bird houses which have been successful are 

 shown on this and following pages. 



Writing of the robin, Mr. Bull continues: 



How cheery is his morning song just at the first peep of day. And 

 how sweet his long evening song which he keeps up till 

 long after sunset. And how weatherwise he is. 



When he flies up to the topmost branch of his pet tree 

 and calls his "twill-rain!" "twill-rain!" 

 you may be very sure the garden will be 

 sprinkled without overworking the water 

 meter. How fat and cheerful he looks as 

 he hops over the lawn; stopping now and 

 again to yank out a great fat worm, pos- 

 sibly as long as himself. He will be glad 

 to nest in your garden and if you have a 

 large tree he will usually nest in that, but 

 so many trees have no suitable forks. 

 He would be most pleased to 

 nest on a shelf under the eaves 

 of your house, but so many 

 houses have no shelf there . Or 

 under the porch roof, if he 

 could find a good place. But 

 most houses are so built that 

 there is no suitable location 

 for him, and so there have been many attempts to 

 construct locations which might attract him. 



He will not enter a hole. No box or house for 

 him ! It must be in the form of a shelf, preferably 

 with a cover. It must be open on at least two 

 sides and should have a low, raised rim around the 

 edge to keep the nest from being blown or washed 

 off. It should have a roof, too, for while the 

 great majority of robin nests are in trees, and in 

 rather open situations at that, when they can find 

 a good situation on a house it will nearly always 

 be under some sort of overhang. 



The shelf might be hung right on the side of 

 the house, preferably on the east or west side, 

 not on the south unless the location is partially shaded. It should 

 hang so rigidly that no severe wind will swing it too hard, prefer- 

 ably by two screw eyes. The roof should have enough pitch and 

 overhang so as to shed most of the rain and yet not too much. 



A serviceable bluebird 

 house. Make box as 

 shown in sketch, pre- 

 ferably of slab wood, 

 especially top. If im- 

 possible to secure wood 

 with bark attached, 

 stain dark grayish 

 brown. Box is fast- 

 ened to pole by strip 

 of sheet iron screwed 

 on back of box and 

 screwed to pole 



