Photograph by Ernest Harold Baynes 
A BALTIMORE ORIOLE AFTER A BATH 
The Baltimore oriole is remarkable for its bright colors, and to these it owes its name, 
as the livery of the Lords Baltimore, who founded Maryland, was orange and black of just 
those tones that the bird exhibits. 
interesting experiences on a game pre- 
serve in Connecticut, where low-lying 
areas have been flooded and the wild 
ducks attracted in increasing numbers 
each year from miles around (see picture, 
page 175). ; 
know of one man in Canada who 
several years ago fed a small flock of 
wild geese that chanced to alight in a 
pond close beside his house. The geese 
appreciated the treatment so much that 
they later returned with friends, and 
have kept it up from year to year until 
now I believe that he has had at one time 
several hundred wild geese virtually in 
his front yard, and in a very exposed 
position at that. They seem absolutely 
fearless, come and go at will, though only 
a short distance away are gunners who 
are waiting to take a crack at them. 
Only a few of us have ponds to which 
geese may be attracted, but the foregoing 
experiment shows what can be and has 
been done in the way of attracting and 
taming locally the shy wild geese. 
HOUSES FOR THE BIRDS 
Of bird-houses, to be supplied for those 
birds that nest about buildings or in 
Cats have been eliminated on this place. 
holes of trees, there seems to be an al- 
most infinite variety—tree stumps, real 
or artificial, boxes, cottages, houses, large 
and elaborate mansions, barrel-houses, 
gourds, flower-pots, tin cans, shelves, 
and all kinds of contraptions. 
Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton went so 
far as to construct on his place in Con- 
necticut a huge artificial stump, filled 
with imitation woodpeckers’ holes, etc. 
He attracted numbers of different kinds 
of birds and animals, and he seems to 
have had no end of fun with it. It is not 
allowed to all of us, however, to be given 
either the opportunity or the enthusiasm 
possessed by Mr. Seton. 
Of the various kinds of houses space 
will allow but brief mention. On my 
own place, which is covered largely with 
woods, I have used one special type of 
vertical boxes with considerable success. 
These are simply sections of logs, hol- 
lowed out by special machinery in a very 
particular manner to represent wood- 
pecker cavities, with entrance hole in 
side, of desired diameter, and covered by 
a wooden cap or roof that may be lifted 
for purposes of investigation or in order 
that the nests may be cleaned out from 
176 
