228 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



Bayne's Company, at Meriden, New Hampshire. The mis- 

 take was made by buying four or five with holes too small 

 for the ordinary birds. These have never (two seasons) 

 been occupied. Of the others, four were used the first year, 

 and three the second, one of the larger ones having been 

 occupied by flickers the past season. These boxes are all 

 on trees. Last winter and spring I hung twenty-four board 

 boxes, with entrance-holes from ij to 2 inches in diameter. 

 These were painted dark green, and twenty-one of them 

 were placed on poles, which in turn were fastened to fence 

 posts in a cow pasture at intervals of 50 feet. Of these 

 twenty-one boxes, twelve were certainly nested in, and in 

 others unfinished nests were found. There were five or six 

 families of tree swallows in these post boxes, and the other 

 species were bluebirds and two English sparrows, the latter 

 being broken up. Of the three other boxes of this type 

 hung in trees, two were occupied by bluebirds. Of ten 

 roofing-paper boxes made by Mr. Winthrop Packard three 

 were occupied. My five hollow-limb boxes placed in trees 

 were not used. None of the boxes used on this home farm 

 has had any creosote put on or in them. 



"I ought to say that I have had no success at all with 

 boxes placed in the woods, and shall put up no more there. 

 My experience agrees with Forbush's conclusion that boxes 

 on poles or posts are more generally occupied than those 

 on trees elm generally. The more open and free from 

 shade the situation the better have been the results. As 

 far as I can see, the Von Berlepsch model has no advantage 

 over the plain board box, except perhaps for flickers. I 

 have had hairy woodpeckers bore into two Von Berlepsch 

 boxes during the winter, when the regular entrance was 

 plugged up to keep out squirrels and mice, but as far as I 

 know, they did not nest in these boxes. They have not 



