84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The summary of the 115 houses shows: 26 empty, 64 with 

 squirrels, 3 with mice, 7 with hornets, wasps or bumblebees, 

 3 with undesirable birds, and only 12 occupied by the birds 

 for w^iich the houses were intended. 



This shows that the small bird houses are appreciated by 

 gray squirrels and red squirrels, and that the Perry boxes were 

 mainly too small for the larger squirrels, but right for the fly- 

 ing squirrels, which probably drove most of the birds away. 



The boxes used for chickadees may have had entrances too 

 small for the squirrels or may not have been needed by them. 

 Those taken by English sparrows were mainly outside the 

 woods. 



In 1915 the tow-n of Brookline had erected in trees a large 

 number of nesting boxes of various patterns. According to a 

 census of some of these boxes taken in July by Walt Mc- 

 Mahon from this oflBce, they were occupied as follows : — 



Used by English sparrows, 76 



Used by squirrels, 19 



Entrance holes enlarged by squirrels, including some of the 19 above, 15 



Missing, 7 



Occupied mainly by caterpillars of the gypsy moth, . . . .10 



Taken down by owner of premises, 2 



Used by bluebirds, 1 



Used by great crested flycatcher, . .1 



Here in more open land than that on the Hopedale Park and 

 in many cases on street trees English sparrows, squirrels and 

 gypsy moths competed for the boxes. There were 105 boxes 

 which furnished shelter and protection for English sparrows, 

 squirrels and gypsy moths, and which sheltered only two fam- 

 ilies of useful native birds. Had these domiciles been erected 

 on poles or isolated trees, and had they received a little atten- 

 tion twice a month from some one who knew how to get rid 

 of undesirable tenants, there might have been an increase of 

 native birds rather than a great accession to the number of 

 their enemies. The motive of the Brookline authorities was 

 excellent, but failure resulted at the beginning because of a 

 lack of skilled attention to small details. If they persevere, 

 learning as they go on, the money expended will not have been 

 wasted, and they will succeed in the end. 



