The Love Element In Bird Protection 139 



I iiever saw the first seek protection from the cold 

 nor the second from the fiery rays of the sun. 

 The Blue-bird, beyond any other bird I know, is 

 a bird of the sun-light and will not live in the 

 shade. On the lawn of my home, is a venerable 

 apple tree, the last of a large pioneer orchard. 

 It is partially hollow and principally decayed, but 

 every year it buds and blossoms and puts forth 

 a wealth of leaves that keeps the sun from pene- 

 trating to the bole of the tree. Seeing Blue-birds 

 casually investigating the tree, year after year, 

 and never building in any of its numerous cavities, 

 I concluded that it must be on account of the bad 

 state of decay in which they found the trunk of the 

 tree. So I put my latest thing in a bird-house in 

 the deep shade in the center of the tree and the 

 Blue-birds came and looked it over and did a lot 

 of talking among themselves and then took up 

 quarters else-where. Different models of houses 

 were tried but with no success, and then I got a 

 hunch ; it's the shade. The neglected house in the 

 tree was quickly moved to the top of a fence post 

 up by the garden, all in the merry month of May, 

 and in no time it was taken on a long-time lease 

 and has not been vacant since. 



One year a pair of Blue-birds set up house-keep- 

 ing about six feet from the ground, in an aban- 

 doned Wood-pecker's hole, in the dismantled stub 

 of an old apple tree. Nothing could have been 



