NESTING-BOXES 237 



the sparrows begin nesting in them very early, the 

 holes may be covered till time for the native birds 

 to return. 



Houses for woodpeckers should have a small 

 amount of a mixture of dry dirt and sawdust placed 

 in them to take the place of the peckings of wood 

 that the birds leave in their holes. 



Location of box. The location of the box is im- 

 portant. Very few birds will occupy a box in the 

 dense woods, so that boxes should not be placed in 

 heavy shade, but should be well exposed. Boxes may 

 be placed on grape arbors and trees in the yard, and 

 even on porches. Telephone-poles furnish good lo- 

 cations. Experiments that have been made seem to 

 indicate that birds prefer a house placed on a post 

 to one placed on a tree and that they prefer houses 

 in the open or light shade to those in the dense shade. 



Mr. Edward H. Forbush, State Ornithologist of 

 Massachusetts, in his annual report for 1915 gives 

 the results of his experiments with nesting-boxes 

 during the past season. Twenty-five boxes were 

 erected on poles in the open, and fifty boxes on trees. 

 A census taken on July 4 showed that of the houses 

 on poles ninety-six per cent were occupied by birds 

 (including one pair of English sparrows; the other 

 sparrows were driven away by removing then* eggs) ; 

 while of the boxes on trees only eight per cent were 

 occupied. Mr. Forbush also cites the case of an- 

 other man who mounted twenty-one nesting-boxes 



