PRACTICAL BOOK OF GARDEN ARCHITECTURE 



wren's house should be exactly the size of a silver 

 quarter. This is the smallest opening used. The 

 martins, bluebirds, nuthatches, and even the chicka- 

 dees, all require larger openings, with a generous 

 size for the woodpeckers and others that are to be 

 attracted to the hollow logs. In making the plain 

 wooden boxes, it will be well to have the sloping 

 roof hinged, so that the box may easily be cleaned 

 when desired, although,, the birds usually attend to 

 their own housecleaning. An overhanging of tar 

 paper will keep the hinged portion water-tight. The 

 sides of the box should be nailed outside of the floor 

 portion, and made to extend slightly below it, to 

 be perfectly rain-proof. The entrance hole should 

 never be placed quite close to the bottom of the box, 

 and should never be left without a perch on the out- 

 side, about an inch below it. The bird does not like 

 being compelled to jump or flutter from the plat- 

 form of the box, or the top of the pole, into the en- 

 trance. Neither does the average bird enter its 

 home flying. It wants to perch for a moment outside 

 of the entrance, and look into the house before hop- 

 ping inside. Room for nest building should be left 

 in the bottom of the box below the entrance; when 

 the hole is too close to the bottom, it is often ob- 

 structed when the nest is finished. 



Houses in the form of crockery balls and cylin- 



148 



