92 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



In some copies of Circular 45 that have gone out from this 

 office the statement is made, on the authority of Herbert K. 

 Job, that the stariings cannot enter a hole If inches wide. 

 This error arose from a misunderstanding of a statement made 

 to me verbally by Mr. Job. The starling readily enters a If- 

 inch hole, but cannot, so Mr. Job affirms, get into a If -inch 

 opening. This is important if martins will enter a If-inch 

 hole when a small opening has been made above the entrance 

 to let in light. If starlings cannot get into If-inch openings, 

 martin boxes possibly may be made that will accommodate 

 martins and keep out starlings, but this has not been tried. 



As boxes for bluebirds and swallows require only l|-inch 

 openings, practically all the smaller birds that nest in boxes 

 may be protected against eviction by the starling. 



An Increase of Wrens. 



Possibly one result of the Massachusetts nesting-box cam- 

 paign is an increased number of house wrens. Many boxes 

 having been erected with holes too small for the birds that 

 commonly nest in them, there has been an increased oppor- 

 tunity for wrens, and more wrens have been reported nesting 

 in Massachusetts within the last two years than for many 

 previous years. 



Experiments with Nesting Places for Creepers. 



The following extract from a letter from the w^ell-known orni- 

 thologist, J. H. Bowles, of Tacoma, Washington, explains 

 itself: — 



As might be expected, tree swallows, violet green swallows, western 

 bluebirds, Seattle wrens (northwest Bewick's) and western house wrens 

 are not at all difficult to attract to boxes. Friends in the surrounding 

 country report several cases where the chestnut-backed chickadee has 

 nested in the hollow-limb nesting box, but I have not as j^et experimented 

 with these birds myself. 



The most interesting experiments, to me, have been my work with the 

 California creeper, a subspecies that is not very rare in these parts. In 

 many instances they are not at all shy, and in several cases I have known 

 them to nest within a few hundred feet of a settlement; ... of course 

 this has been in the immediate vicinity of a good-sized strip of woods. 



