AIDS TO NESTING 233 



b. Supplying Nesting Material 



Two Classes of Birds. While the matter of supplying 

 nesting material to birds as a means of inducing them to 

 nest on the premises has been suggested by some authors, 

 this practice does not seem to have been emphasized as it 

 deserves, and practically all attention has been given to 

 nesting-boxes. The latter have a special element of the 

 spectacular and of popular appeal, yet after all it is largely 

 immaterial what sort of nests birds use, as long as we can 

 attract them to nest with us and afford protection to them 

 and their offspring during the critical period. Only a small 

 minority of the species use or need the nesting-boxes, while 

 a much larger number of kinds may be amenable to this 

 other method. The two should be used in conjunction, 

 else we may be open to the charge of partiality, as favouring 

 hole-nesters as against weavers! 



Early Lesson. My first lesson in the possibility of sup- 

 plying nesting material to birds was when I was a small 

 boy. Mother put out some choice pieces of lace to bleach 

 on the window-sill at our home in Boston. At night they 

 were missing, and we never knew what had become of them 

 until next autumn the oriole's nest in the big elm near the 

 window blew down in a gale, and there was the lace woven 

 into the pretty structure. This gave me an idea, and I used 

 to put out cotton, cloth, yarn, or string, and watch birds 

 carry it off. In this way I could trace them to their nests, 

 which otherwise might not have been built on the premises. 



Recent Example. A recent concrete example of what can 

 be accomplished in this way is given in the experience of 

 W. G. Taylor of Derby, Connecticut, in the summer of 1914 

 and previously. He has only a garden of two acres, but by 

 feeding the birds in winter, and helping them to build their 



