Nest -Box Notes 



21 



An English Sparrow as a House-breaker 

 and Other Notes 



Some years ago, at my home in Plain- 

 field, New Jersey, I erected a small Wren 

 house, placing it on top of a small tele- 

 graph-pole in the garden. I made the 

 entrance hole to the box so small that an 

 English Sparrow could not enter, and here, 

 for several years, a pair of Wrens made 

 their home and raised their families. Last 

 winter, an English Sparrow determined to 

 take possession, and I found it repeatedly 

 clinging to the side wall of the house, and 

 pecking at the wood and enlarging the 

 hole. This it kept up most determinedly 

 for a number of weeks, until it was large 

 enough for its entrance, when it at once 

 took possession and went to house-keeping. 

 I then took the house down and destroyed 

 it. I found the wood-work of soft pine 

 badly eaten around the entrance, showing 

 that the Sparrow can dig into wood as well 

 as into grains and seeds. 



One of the sights of this city is a large 

 Purple Martin colony on the main business 

 street, consisting of three bird-houses, con- 

 taining probably ten pairs in each. Here they 

 come every April and raise their families 

 without apparently being in the least dis- 

 turbed by the noisy traffic going on around 

 them. Here they have come for so many 

 years that the oldest inhabitant cannot re- 

 member to the contrary. They were cer- 

 tainly here in 1828, and, how long before, 

 we have no record. 



Other noteworthy bird appearances here 

 were a Tufted Titmouse who spent the 

 winter of 1902 3 with us, whose clear 

 whistle was frequently heard as he fed with 

 the Nuthatches and Downies, on the suet, 

 placed on a tree in front of the house; also, 

 a flock of Cardinals who spent the winter 

 in a near-by swamp, and the visit of a flock 

 of Starlings, that came in one of the heavy 

 snows of last winter. The Wood Thrush is 

 plentiful here in summer, with numerous 

 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and I have one 

 Jarge Snowy Owl to my credit. — Wm. M. 

 Stillman, Plainfield, N . J. 



A MEMBER OF A FAMILY THAT MAKE THEIR 



OWN NEST BOXES. FLICKER 



Photographed by R. H- Beebe at Arcade. N. Y. 



