No. 4.] 



BIRDS ON THE FARM. 



127 



adee, our most common titmouse, has mainly held aloof 

 from human dwellinos during- the breedino- season. 



Thirty years ago, before the English sparrows became 

 plentiful, this bird bred in the hollow trunks of old apple 

 trees in orchards or dooryards, and does so to-day where the 

 sparrows have not obtained a foothold ; but it has been 

 driven from such localities by the sparrow, returning to its 

 old haunts mainly 

 in the winter, 

 Avhen sparrows re- 

 sort much to the 

 city or village 

 streets. Chicka- 

 dees may be in- 

 duced at times to 

 build in partially 

 decayed birch 

 stumps by simply 

 boring a seven- 

 eiohths-inch auo-er 

 hole into the side 

 of the stump, at a 

 point three or four 

 feet from the 

 ground. The birds, 

 finding a hole al- 

 ready begun, Avill 

 finish it and build 

 a nest there, as they 

 do sometimes in the 

 excavations made 



by woodpeckers. Believing that these birds might take 

 advantage of a nesting box if it were provided for them, we 

 first cut away all the dead stumps within a radius of about 

 two hundred yards of the house and garden. Then food 

 was put out in the winter on branches fastened to the house. 

 A small pine tree was placed near the kitchen window and 

 another at the dining room window, and these were hung 

 with bits of dried meat, bone and suet. The chickadees 



Fig. 3. — Observation Box closed. 



