The Audubon Societies 



59 



our country, Junior boys have made little homes in which some of our bird 

 allies might tind shelter from the cold and heavy winter snows and in which 

 others might build their nests when they come back in the spring. 



Were you to pass through the early morning quiet of a snow-covered wood, 

 you might see through the little wood-cut window of a bird-house snugly set 

 in the tree branches, the bright, bead-like eye of a tiny dweller of the wood, 

 warm and comfortable in the new home that some thoughtful Junior had built. 

 And in the echo of the chatter and trills coming from the little inhabitants, 

 the Juniors discern a clear "Thank you!" 



But their thanks come not in songs alone, for all day long the Woodpeckers, 

 Nuthatches, and Chickadees that have roosted in the boxes search out and 

 destroy the hibernating insects that are waiting only for spring to start them 

 destroying the foliage and undermining the bark of the trees. And then when 

 spring comes these winter birds will be joined by other songsters that will make 

 their homes in the boxes — the Wrens, the Bluebirds, and the Tree Swallows 

 whose insatiable young require thousands of insects to satisfy them. Truly 

 our Juniors of the American Red Cross have performed a National service in 

 building these homes for the birds. — Contributed by thp: American Red 

 Cross. 



HOW TO BUILD BIRD-HOUSES 



The making of bird-houses is an old, old story, but, like many other classic 

 tales, it will bear re-telling. The original idea was simple enough, but of recent 

 years it has been encumbered by so many suggestions that people hesitate to 

 undertake what is really an easy task, for the more simple the box, the more 

 natural will it appear and the more attractive will it be to the birds. The fanciful 

 doll-houses, with several compartments, chimneys, frescoes and verandas, while 

 occasionally used by House Sparrows or Purple Martins, are usually very in- 

 effective, and, of course, entirely out of place. The more it resembles the old 

 hollow limb in the orchard or the hole in the fence-post, the more pleasing to the 

 eye of the bird will it be. 



There are over fifty species of birds in the United States and Canada which 

 utilize holes in trees for nesting, including many of the most useful. The 

 borer-destroying Woodpeckers, the larvte-destroying Nuthatches, the egg- 

 destroying Chickadees, the mosquito-destroying Tree Swallows — all build in 

 holes in trees and may be attracted to nesting-boxes. In these days of scientific 

 forestry, when every dead tree is condemned and when every dead branch is 

 lopped off by the 'tree doctor,' their natural nesting-sites are rapidly disappear- 

 ing and their numbers must necessarily decrease unless they are provided with 

 artificial nesting-places. It is a wise timber-owner who puts up at least one 

 nesting-box in the place of every dead tree which he removes. The Chickadees 

 and Woodpeckers that are with us in winter, and the Wrens and Bluebirds 

 that return in the spring, will move on unless the}' find plenty of nesting-sites. 



