12 



be better for typical woodpeckers, such as the hairy and downy 

 woodpeckers. Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes reports two cases 



where downy woodpeckers have nested in 

 these domiciles; but flickers and red-headed 

 woodpeckers nest in rectangular boxes. This 

 latter type of box is excellent for bluebirds, 

 chickadees, wrens, flickers and tree swallows. 

 If made 18 inches deep for bluebirds it will 

 be very nearly cat proof. 

 The smaller sizes of the 

 Berlepsch type have been 

 made and sold in Germany 

 for about 25 cents each, but 

 here they cost much more. 

 Fig. 8. - A useful box. ^ ^^^.y f^j^. temporary sub- 

 stitute may be made by growing gourds which, when the contents 

 have been removed, are acceptable to many birds if tied upon 

 poles or trees (Fig. 9), but they are not so durable as well- 

 made wooden boxes, and I have not had much success with 

 them. 



Fig. 9. — Gourd. 



S) 



■Jiingle Nesting Box. 



My first nesting boxes, all of which were successful, were 

 made of old shingles, picked up from the ground when the barn 

 was reshingled, and some pieces of old weathered 

 boards removed from the ridgepole at that time. 

 A square section about 3| inches in diameter was 

 sawed from the ridgeboard for the top of the box, 

 and another 4 inches wide w^as used for the bottom, 

 the shingles being nailed to them (Fig. 10). A saw, 

 hammer and jacknife and a few nails were the only 

 tools and materials required. I have made such a 

 box in twelve minutes. These boxes were nailed up 

 in elm, cherry and apple trees, and some happy fig. lo. 

 families of bluebirds were raised, until at last the 

 cats discovered them. A large number of shingles may be saved 

 when a building is reshingled, and every year at the end of the 

 season the old boxes may be taken down and burned, to do 

 away with vermin, gypsy moths, etc., that may be concealed 

 within. It takes but a short time to make more. 



Shingle 

 nesting box. 



