Part I.] RErORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 119 



with an entrance but 1 inch in diameter. The female laid eggs 

 but deserted them, and the nest was occupied by bumblebees. 

 The 1| or 1\ inch entrance is probably best for chickadees. 



A Warning against Deep Nesting Boxes with Smooth 

 Inner Surfaces. 

 The necessity of examining nesting boxes frequently was 

 shown by our experience this year with three deep flicker boxes 

 made of planed boards. On the first inspection two dead adult 

 tree swallows were found in one, and, later, several were dis- 

 covered in the others. The cause of their death was not under- 

 stood at first, but daily examination of these boxes revealed the 

 fact that if tree swallows entered them and went to the bottom 

 they could not get out. Many thus trapped were liberated. A 

 close watch of the boxes seemed to prove that these birds use 

 their wings in climbing out of a deep cavity and escape by 

 both fluttering and clinging. If the inner surface of the wood 

 is smooth, neither wings nor feet find any hold, and the birds 

 flutter and die in their attempts to escape. When the interior 

 surface was roughened, or when a piece of fine wire screen was 

 tacked on the inner front surface, the birds easily escaped. 

 This showed the necessity of having all deep nesting boxes 

 roughened or scored inside from bottom to entrance hole, to 

 provide a ladder for the escape of old or young birds. 



'A Successful Nesting Site for Wrens. 

 The reproduction from a photograph shown on Plate V. 

 represents a cow's skull hung up in a tree as a nesting place for 

 wrens. In the annual report of the State Ornithologist for 1914 

 the success attending the efforts of Dr. B. H. Warren in colo- 

 nizing birds on Wallop's Island, Virginia, was reported. Since 

 then the Liberty Bell Bird Club of Philadelphia has established 

 a bird sanctuary on the island, and for want of more genteel 

 nesting boxes they hung up for the wrens 24 empty cow skulls 

 that were found bleaching there. Almost immediately 23 of 

 these were occupied by wrens, so writes jNIr. Charles P. Shoff- 

 ner, secretary of the club. The wrens found these nesting places 

 safe, as the occipital entrance to the brain cavity is so small 



