The Audubon Societies 



385 



would probably do more than anything else to clinch the children's interest in 

 birds and nature. 



ANTI-SPARROW DEVICES 



Two different 'anti-Sparrow' devices have been recommended to readers 

 of Bird-Lore, the first in January, 1903, by W. W. Grant, and the other by 

 W. E. Saunders in January, 1918, and those who are annoyed with the Sparrows 

 at their feeding stations would do well to refer to them. The writer has found a 



AN 'ANTI-SPARROW FEEDING-BOX AT A WINDOW 



The bottom is hinged and supported by a rubber band or a spring, so that it teeters' when the bird alights 



upon it. The suspicious House Sparrows are afraid to enter, but the native birds seem to enjoy it. 



combination of the device recommended by Mr. Grant and the window-box 

 described above quite successful in keeping the Sparrows away and feeding 

 the native birds. The front half of the floor is held with leather hinges and 

 supported at the corners by rubber bands or light springs, as can be seen in 

 the illustration. When a bird enters the box this board teeters much as though 

 the entire box were about to tip over. The wary House Sparrows have learned 

 to be suspicious of such devices, and, though whole flocks of them perched on 

 top of the box and peered over the edge at the food within, not one dared, at 

 first, to enter. After other birds had been feeding for several weeks, a few Spar- 

 rows learned to enter without causing the board to teeter, but the slightest tap 

 on the window sent them away in fright. — A. A. Allen, Ph.D., Assistant 

 Professor of Ornithology, Cornell University. 



