Notes from Field and Study 



i6i 



nomic effect, nesting-homes must be set 

 out, not in tens but in hundreds of thou- 

 sands, if not in millions, and hence they 

 must be made cheaply enough to permit 

 this. The experiments of the Bedford 

 Audubon Society, of Bedford Hills, 

 N. Y., show that gourds fulfil the needs of 

 the case, in being both very attractive 

 to the birds and extremely cheap, so 

 cheap that over 2,000 of them have been 

 sold within the last two years to people 

 living in and about Bedford Township. 

 They were first brought here for this 

 purpose by Wm. G. Borland. 



These gourds, when tried in competi- 

 tion with more than 600 shingle boxes, 

 of a form approved by several of the most 

 competent American authorities, proved 

 much the more attractive, 50 per cent of 



NESTING-BOX AND GOURDS 



those examined having been nested in 

 during the first year against only 19 per 

 cent of the boxes. 



These gourds, strung with marlin and 

 ready for hanging, with the proper holes 

 for entrance and draining, cost us only 10 

 cents apiece. But a properly organized 

 industry ought to turn them out much 

 more cheaply, probably at a cost of not 

 over 6 cents each, because our cost was 

 based on unfavorable conditions, working 

 in an amateur way, with no special ap- 

 pliances, wholly by adult hand-labor, on 

 a small scale, and at a great distance 

 from North Carolina, where our gourds 

 were raised, so that our freight charges 

 were excessive. 



A gourd lasts four years, and perhaps 



longer. Papier-mache gourds would last 

 much longer, and might, perhaps, be made 

 at an even lower cost, to judge from the 

 cost of papier-mache pails, but here 

 actual experiments are needed to show 

 whether a finish could be given them 

 which would attract the birds. 



The cost of raising and curing the 

 gourds themselves is very small, and the 

 only additional expense is that of clean- 

 ing them out and cutting and stringing a 

 few holes, so that the total cost is small 

 enough to permit distributing them on a 

 scale of real importance to agriculture. 

 The preparation would naturally be done 

 in winter, and therefore under favorable 

 labor conditions. 



Here, then, seems to be an industry 

 awaiting a captain. The work to be done 

 is, first, to diffuse among the farmers 

 the knowledge of the benefit from 

 setting up nesting-homes and winter 

 feeding, so as to create an active 

 demand; and, second, to organize in 

 ^ the South an industry for preparing 

 and delivering these gourds. — H. M. 

 Howe, Bedford Hills, N. Y. 



Some Ruffed Grouse Notes 



The Ruffed Grouse, in spite of three 

 centuries of persecution, is still fairly 

 common in some parts of Massachu- 

 setts. Even within 10 miles of Boston 

 it is met occasionally by the haunters of the 

 isolated woodlands which persist almost in 

 sight of the gilded dome. The wise policy 

 of the Metropolitan Park Commission in 

 setting aside hundreds of acres of un- 

 developed land has done much to pre- 

 serve our wild life, while the town of 

 Brookline has been a pioneer in prohibiting 

 shooting at all times anywhere within the 

 town boundaries. 



The accompanying photograph, was 

 taken at Waban, Mass, May 13, 1916, in a 

 small plot of second-growth woodland, 

 adjoining on one side a large cornfield 

 and on another side the Metropolitan 

 Park Road along the Charles River. Quail 

 are sometimes seen in the cornfield, and 

 Pheasants are becoming very common 



