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Bird - Lore 



attentions confined to bird-houses either; 

 open nests also suffer from his sneak- 

 ing visits, and much of the damage laid at 

 the English Sparrow's door may be traced 

 to the innocent - looking Jenny Wren. — 

 O. WiDMANN, St. Louis. 



From Washington, D. C. 



As to the matter of bird-boxes, there is 

 really very little I could say, and probably 

 nothing that would be new. The boxes 

 on my place are all of the ordinary type, 

 the only special point (and that, of course. 



AN UNWELCOME TENANT 



Photographed with the aid of a mirror to reflect light. 



by E. Van Altena 



not original with me) being that the holes 

 are made too small for the English Sparrow, 

 My boxes are placed anywhere, almost. 

 One is on my veranda ; one on top of 

 a fifteen-foot post to which a climbing rose 

 is trained; one is in a tree, and in other 

 trees are hung long-necked gourds with a 

 small hole in one side. These nesting- 

 places are occupied solely by House Wrens, 

 for they will not allow any other bird to 

 use them. Each spring a pair of Carolina 

 Chickadees build their nest in one of them 

 and have begun incubation by the time the 

 House Wrens arrive, but that is as far as 

 the poor Chickadees ever get, for the Wrens 

 immediately oust them and destroy their 



eggs. If it were not for the English 

 Sparrows I could easily have Bluebirds, 

 Tufted Titmice, Carolina Wrens and 

 Crested Flycatchers, for all these are numer- 

 ous in the vicinity of my place and 

 frequently come inside the grounds; but it 

 is simply of no use whatever to put up 

 .boxes with holes large enough to admit the 

 Sparrow, for he alone benefits thereby. I 

 tried putting up boxes without perches, as 

 some one advised, but (as I really thought 

 would prove to be the case) it made no 

 difference whatever to the Sparrows, which 

 I have seen fly directly into a box without 

 stopping first to cling to the edge of the 

 entrance. — Robert Ridgway, Brookland, 

 D. C. 



From Durham, N. C. 



Birds have simple tastes in the selection 

 of nesting-sites. I have found by experi- 

 ence that the nesting-box on which most 

 time and trouble have been expended is 

 usually the one that goes without a tenant 

 (English Sparrows not counted as tenants). 

 After several unsuccessful attempts to in- 

 duce wild birds to nest in the orchard, I 

 abandoned the fancy-box idea and began 

 to pattern after nature's bird-houses — and 

 with success. A hollow log, about a foot in 

 length and with three inches inside diameter, 

 was secured to the branch of one of the 

 orchard trees by dull-colored twine. Both 

 ends were plugged with old bark and a 

 chink in the side with gray moss. A round 

 hole, one and one-half inches in diameter, 

 had previously been bored in the side of the 

 log, near the top. A pair of Chickadees 

 were the first occupants, and a brood of 

 four was reared that spring. The next year 

 no suitable box was provided, but in the 

 spring of 1904 a pair of Chickadees again 

 built in a new log at the same place. 



A hollow section of dogwood, over a 

 yard in length, and with an inside diameter 

 of five inches, was strapped to the trunk of 

 another orchard tree as the small log had 

 been placed for the Chickadees. The lower 

 end was simply plugged with a few old 

 chips and sticks, while a small board tacked 

 over the top served to keep out the rain and 



