No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 83 



have not been used by birds. People complain that the birds 

 do not accept the proffered domiciles. Failure to attract the 

 feathered tenants may be attributed mainly to the following 

 faults: (1) entrance holes too small for the birds desired; 

 (2) boxes put up in dense woods; (3) boxes put up in trees 

 and therefore accessible to birds' enemies instead of being 

 placed on posts or poles; (4) no trouble taken to protect birds 

 nesting in boxes from their enemies. 



Boxes put up in dense woods are occupied mainly by squir- 

 rels or mice, and by insects. There are some exceptions to 

 this; chickadees and flickers sometimes take such boxes, but 

 they are likely to be driven out by squirrels or other enemies. 

 Boxes in open woods or on the edge of the woods, if not too 

 much surrounded by foliage, may or may not be occupied by 

 bluebirds, tree swallows, chickadees or flickers. 



A. R. Shattuck put up on his estate in Lenox 30 boxes 

 of various sizes, mainly in trees. Seven were used by birds 

 in 1914, 13 by squirrels, 2 by hornets and 8 were not occupied. 

 This year he has suspended some of the boxes from the 

 branches of trees, some are set on posts, and the number occu- 

 pied by birds has increased. While examining these boxes on 

 May 28, 1915, we found no nests of mice or squirrels in any 

 suspended by a wire., and some were occupied by birds. 



Several years ago the park commissioners at Hopedale put 

 up 115 bird houses and nesting boxes in their beautiful forest 

 park of several hundred acres. There were 27 common bird 

 houses with a single apartment and 88 Perry boxes made on 

 the European plan. When the boxes had been up several 

 years. Commissioner Frank J. Dutcher, in the summer of 1914, 

 had an examination made that showed the following results: — 



The bird houses were made of pine boards with an opening 

 in the end and a single compartment. Of the 27 of this kind, 

 21 were- occupied by gray squirrels, 4 by red squirrels and 2 

 were empty. Of the 88 Perry houses, 9 were occupied by red 

 squirrels, 23 by flying squirrels, .7 by gray squirrels, 3 by mice, 

 4 by bumblebees, 2 by wasps, 2 by hornets, 3 by English spar- 

 rows, 2 by bluebirds, 1 by swallows, 4 were used by chicka- 

 dees, 4 by flickers, 1 by some other woodpecker, and 24 were 

 empty. 



