: Notes from Field and Study 
occupied it every year, but think they have, 
for I do not think any others would occupy 
an old nest. However, I am not sure on 
that point. 
Fom the first, it has been an object of 
‘envy to the English Sparrows. The open- 
ing in the can being too small for their 
entrance, they collect on top and try to 
‘oppose the Wrens going in and out. With 
‘cheerfulness of song and manner, the 
Wrens succeeded in raising two broods 
each summer. 
One day the Sparrow opposed the male 
Wren from going in to feed the young 
birds, when it put up a fight, or a show of 
‘one, and dropped its food; that which 
THe —— 
HALVES —— 
—=CompLetep ANY 
-sotkeT _\_» 
“RINDER- 
Twine” 
Sener 
( PLANS FOR A BIRD-BoX” 
DESIGN FOR A COMMON-SENSE 
BIRD BOX 
77 
I found in the grass was part of a grass- 
hopper. But the Wren sang a song of 
defiance from the sweet-pea trellis. 
With my watch in hand, I timed the 
Wren in his songs. He sang ten to a 
minute; that would be six hundred songs 
in an hour, if he kept it up. Allowing 
fourteen hours out of the twenty-four for 
sleep and family duties, there are at least 
ten hours devoted to vocal exercise. 
One evening, at dusk, I heard a sleepy 
little song coming from the can, a lullaby 
to the young birds, or a serenade to Jenny 
Wren.—E. JI. Mercatr, Minneapolis, 
Minn. 
A Common-sense Bird-box 
The chief merit of the ‘nesting-site’ 
shown in these cuts lies in the fact that 
it is not a human invention; it is simply a 
copy from nature. By the way, is it not a 
little surprising that, with so many inyen- 
tions of elaborate ‘houses’ (properly so 
called) for Martins, Swallows and Wrens, 
no one seems to have offered, as yet, new 
plans and specifications for sites for 
Orioles and Hummingbirds ? 
If you cannot lay hold of a good deserted 
Woodpecker’s burrow, just get a stick 
of stove-wood from the shed, or a fallen 
branch from the nearest grove, drill an 
auger hole an inch deep near one end of it, 
split the stick with an axe, gouge out a 
hollow in the cleft surface of each half (see 
diagram) until the auger hole comes 
through, nail them together again and 
your site is complete; you have simply 
been your own Woodpecker. 
For Martins, the ‘stick’ should be about 
twenty inches long, eight in diameter, with 
the entrance about two and one-fourth 
inches across. For Tree Swallows, Blue- 
birds, Nuthatches and Wrens the length 
should be about 18 inches, the diameter 6 
inches, and the opening as follows: Tree 
Swallows, 1%; Bluebird, 1$; Nuthatch, 14; 
Wren, 14 inches, respectively, the dimen- 
sions should be as follows, in the order 
given above for Martins: 18 (about) x 6, 
entrance, 1% inches; 18 (about) x 6, en- 
trance, 1% inches; 18 (about) x 6, entrance 
