No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 391 



and a large number set on short poles fastened to the fence 

 posts in field and pasture, more than 30 per cent of which 

 were occupied by nesting birds the first year. There are three 

 ways of dealing with the English sparrows : ( 1 ) trap, shoot or 

 poison them all; (2) take all their eggs, this will discourage 

 them ; ( 3 ) put up a quantity of nesting boxes so that when the 

 sparrows have taken all they want there will be enough left 

 for the native birds. 



Winthrop Packard, secretary of the Massachusetts Audubon 

 Society, is quite sure that the solution of the sparrow problem 

 lies in the third plan. He set up 20 bluebird boxes on rather 

 less than three-fourths of an acre, and the sparrows were so 

 occupied in choosing from such a plethora that they let the 

 native birds alone. This resulted in the settlement of three 

 times the usual number of swallows and bluebirds, while the 

 sparrows did not increase materially. What will happen next 

 year remains to be seen. I shall try out this plan and report 

 results in the years to come. 



Every inexperienced person who attempts to put up nesting 

 boxes should have printed directions advising him about practi- 

 cal details of construction and placing. Many nesting boxes 

 have been placed wrong side up, or in such situations that 

 birds never take them. I shall prepare a circular on this sub- 

 ject soon, and hope that it will be ready for distribution before 

 this report reaches the public. In the meantime, those who in- 

 tend to put up nesting boxes should have them ready to place 

 in March. 



A few might be put up in the fall for the returning migrants 

 to rest in as they pass on, and for birds to use in winter. The 

 rest should be erected in March and April. 



Nothing increases the number of birds more readily than 

 secure nesting places. The State government could well afford 

 a few thousand dollars to be expended for placing nesting boxes 

 along roads and railroads, on telephone or telegraph poles. 



Birds and Insects. 



It was my intention to take time during the summer of 1914 

 to watch insect invasions and determine as far as possible the 

 effect produced on them by birds, but office work and the de- 



