AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 257 



MAILBAG EXTRACTS. 



I have put up a bird house and am making another one. There are 



a good many English Sparrows around here. I tacked apiece of bread 



on the fence, and it was eaten up pretty quick, I think the Fourth of 



July will be an unhappy time for the birds, because they will get scared. 



I am very much interested in the Bird Magazine. 



Wm. K. D. Reynolds. 



Berkeley, Cal. 



Last year about the eighth of May, I was walking in the yard, when 

 suddenly I heard the little voice of the House Wren. I followed the 

 voice till I found the little fellow busily hunting insects on the apple 

 tree. Thinking he probably wished to rent a house, I went to work 

 sawing, hammering and trying to make a house. But as it was entirely 

 new business to me I sawed my apron more than I did the wood. I 

 finished the house that afternoon and nailed it up. 



The next day was Sunday, and when I came home from church, 

 Mamma said, "Jenny and Johny have moved in." I could hardly realize 

 that such cute birds had moved in such a rude house. 



It was so interesting to watch them come to the house together, and 

 Jenny go in the house and fix the straws and sticks, while Johnny would 

 sit on some twig or the top of the house and pour forth such a beautiful 

 song. 



One day we heard some very faint chirps from the bird house, and 

 knew the little ones had hatched. When they left we do not know. 



After a while Jenny seemed to be repairing the nest, and before long 

 there were eight more little eggs in it. We saw some of those little 

 ones leave the nest, and such a scolding as the parents did, I have 

 never heard before or since. It may be they were scolding because I 

 was around. This year my uncle made me two very cute houses. I 

 hope my Wrens will come back next year and occupy these nice homes. 



Naomi E. Voris, Crawfordsville, Ind. 



I wish to note in the magazine the discovery of two unusual nesting 

 sites. One was a blue bird's nest situated in a tree on a limb. I found 

 it on May 26th with five eggs and watched them until they hatched. 

 The old birds seemed to like the shady leafy home as much as if it 

 were bare. The other was a catbird's nest built in a pile of four foot 

 wood beside the river. I was fishing on May 21st, on the opposite 

 side of the river from the wood, when to my surprise a catbird flew 

 down and picked up a cast off minnow head. I watched where she 

 flew and saw her go in a large opening in a side of a pile of wood. I 

 then poured out some earth worms and ...waited. About one minute 



