8o 



Bird - Lore 



On one occasion, I put up an old, weather-beaten rabbit-trap on a pole, 

 leaving the hole through which the trigger had worked, for an entrance. 

 This box was soon occupied by Bluebirds. They were not long left in peace, 

 however. The box also attracted the attention of a pair of Red-headed Wood- 

 peckers. The entrance was too small to allow them to enter, but they soon 

 enlarged it, and threw out the materials the Bluebirds had carried in. They 

 were, seemingly, delighted with the location, and worked for days in trying to 

 lit it for occupancy. They worked and hammered away until I decided that 

 they were located permanently, before they gave up the attempt. This set 

 me to thinking. It was very apparent that the trouble was not in the shape 

 of the box, or the location. An editorial in one of the ornithological journals, 



NEST-BOX OF THE SPARROW HAWK 



not long since, expressed the idea that it would be necessary to devise expen- 

 sive machinery for boring out hollows in solid wood, in imitation of the natural 

 home, in order to attract Woodpeckers. The birds above mentioned seemed to 

 be perfectly at home in the box, except for the fact that the bottom was too 

 flat, and would allow the eggs to roll about. It then occurred to me that all 

 that is necessary to attract these birds to artificial houses is boxes made of 

 w^eather-beaten boards, shaped like their natural homes, and with chips in 

 the bottom. With this idea in mind, I at once went to work and made some 

 boxes on this plan. The first was placed about twenty feet from the ground, 

 and nailed to the side of an elm tree, which had a broken top. Early in the 

 spring of 1910 it was occupied by a pair of Flickers. They had been in pos- 

 session about two weeks, when they were driven out by a pair of Sparrow 

 Hawks. The Hawks still occupy the box, which is shown in the picture. A 



