No; 4.] BIRD HOUSES AND NESTING BOXES. 



211 



near houses, even in nesting boxes on poles on the roofs of 

 wooden buildings or high city blocks, but they will not accept 

 hidden nesting places where they have to fly in among the branches 

 of leafy trees, and they seem to come most 

 readily to a bird house situated in an open 

 yard or on a wide lawn. They seem to pre- 

 fer low ground to high ground, and always 

 like the neighborhood of water. Therefore 

 an open river valley suits them, but people 

 not having these advantages need not de- 

 spair, as martins often have nested on high 

 ground, but rarely, I believe, far from water. 

 A drinking and bathing fountain with running 

 water might help to induce them to settle 

 where other water is absent. A martin house 

 may be made of any strong barrel (Fig. 27), fig. 27. 

 and I have seen such boxes occupied for many 

 years by these birds. The bottom of each entrance hole may 

 be made level with the floor of its compartment, to facilitate 

 cleaning out and to allow any water that may drive in to run 



Martin barrel. 



Fig. 28. — Successful soap box martin colony of 

 three houses. 



out again, but it is well to have a gallery or veranda under 

 the upper openings and overhanging the lower. This and the 

 projecting eaves should shed most of the rain. 



