74 



Bird- Lore 



A Birds' Bath 



There is no better way to attract birds 

 about our homes during the summer than 

 to supply them with water for drinking and 

 bathing. 



The accompanying photograph shows a 

 bath which evidently met with the approval 

 of most of the birds in the vicinity of my 



A BIRDS BATH 



house in the summer and autumn of 1900, 

 it being patronized even by Screech Owls. 

 It is made of bricks and cement and in 

 cross-section resembles the appended dia- 

 gram: 



/ 



Boards may be used to form partitions, 

 which should be filled with earth. The 

 plants introduced were sagittaria, iris, yel- 

 low pond lily, wild rice, duckweed and 

 water hyacinth. 



The pond is filled with a hose and re- 

 plenished as evaporation requires. — Frank 

 M. Chapman, Engleivood, N. J. 



Buried Treasure 



On February 10, 1901, I observed a 

 rather amusing incident. The snow was 

 nearly a foot deep here on that day and the 

 weather had been quite cold for some time. 

 I was walking through a small piece of 

 woods in search of birds, when I noticed a 

 commotion near an embankment where the 

 snow had drifted to a considerable depth. 

 On drawing near I found a large number 

 of Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches 

 and Downy Woodpeckers assembled, the 

 former most in evidence. All the birds 

 seemed much interested in something in the 

 snow, for one after another would fly down, 

 then back into the low trees, in the mean- 

 time keeping up a busy chattering. I went 

 forward to examine the object of their 

 curiosity and found that they had hollowed 

 out a hole in the snow the size of a large 

 bowl. I scraped the snow aside, but could 

 find nothing unusual. My interference was 

 strongly resented by the birds, who raised a 

 great disturbance, several of the Chickadees 

 almost flying in my face in their rage. I 

 was finally obliged to leave without solving 

 the mystery. 



Just one week later I visited the place 

 again. It had snowed since my former 

 visit, but on reaching tbe spot I found a 

 much deeper hole and the same flock of 

 birds, reenforced by several Blue Jays and a 

 pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers. This 

 time I made a closer examination and de- 

 tected something yellow at the bottom of the 

 hole which, on being brought to light, was 

 found to be a piece of butter. More scrap- 

 ing revealed more butter, and when all the 

 snow was cleared from the spot it was found 

 that a large round hole had been made in 

 the earth in which had been placed about 

 fifteen pounds of good sweet butter. The 

 stuff had evidently been placed there by 

 thieves, but the birds had detected the 

 plunder, and it was high living for the 

 feathered inhabitants of the woods. I later 

 found that the pair of Red-bellied Wood- 

 peckers had carried about half a pound to 

 a cavity in a large tree, which they were 

 hoarding for future use. — W. O. Doolit- 

 TLE, Paines-ville, Ohio. 



