8 



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may get the box too high or too low; but all these things 

 make very little difference. The situation, environment, and 

 size of the entrances, however, are important. I have known 



tree swallows to nest in a round 

 box 3| inches in interior diam- 

 eter, in a flowerpot even smaller 

 at the bottom, and in a one- 

 apartment bird house, nearly a 

 foot square and about 18 inches 

 high from floor to ridgepole 

 (Fig. 10). This is one of the 

 most popular houses with tree 

 swallows. But why waste enough 

 lumber on one bird house to 

 make three nesting boxes? I 

 have tried facing the entrance 

 hole to all points of the com- 

 pass. The birds used them all. 

 Painted or unpainted, weath- 

 ered or unweathered, wood, 

 bark, cement, tin, clay, papier 

 mache and roofing felt, — all have been chosen indiscriminately 

 by feathered house hunters. Boxes placed 6 feet from the 

 ground and others set on poles on the roofs of tall city build- 

 ings have been taken. I have seen chickadees nesting in a 

 hole in a birch stump 2 feet from the 

 ground and in the hollow branch of an 

 elm 65 feet up. One wood duck settled 

 in a hollow apple tree 3 feet from the 

 ground, and another 40 feet up in a 

 hollow elm. Such experiences lead us 

 to revise our opinions regarding the 

 exact size of the tenement each bird 

 requires and how high or low it should 

 be situated. I am not so positive as I 

 once was regarding what is best for certain species or what 

 kind of a box or situation will best please each one. It seems 

 that the birds have some individuality, or that they need 

 nesting places so badly that they will take almost anything 



Fig. 9. — Box inside a building. (From 

 Biological Survey.) 



Fig. 10. — Swallow house. 



