128 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and other birds soon found them, and came to them reo-u_ 

 larly day after day and hour after hour, continuing their 

 Christmas festivities all winter and well into the early spring. 

 A single bird box was then put up at a window in a loft over 

 the woodshed. This was made after a i)attern I began using 



thirty years ago, 

 and may be called 

 an observation 

 box (Fig. 3). As 

 sliown in Fig. 4, 

 it is provided witli 

 a door, which con- 

 sists of a hino-ed 

 side facing the 

 AN' i n d o ^v , and 

 w h i c h can be 

 opened at Avill by 

 the observer. A 

 })ane of olass is 

 also inserted in 

 this side, so that, 

 when the door is 

 opened, the eggs 

 or nestlings are 

 protected b}^ the 

 thick glass from 



dangers without. 

 Suchabox must be 

 so placed that the 

 sun cannot shine 

 into it, as this might endanger the lives of the young birds.' 

 By this time the English sparrows had all been shot or driven 

 away from the premises, the mice and squirrels had been 

 ejected from the bird boxes, and the chickadees began to mani- 

 fest some curiosity as to the purpose of these curious habita- 

 tions. As spring approached, a chickadee was seen now and 

 then to enter one of the boxes. The one over the woodshed 

 was inspected frequently, and it is believed that toward spring 

 one or more of the birds passed the night in its shelter. 



Fig. 4. — Observation Box open. 



