BIRDS OF NEW YORK 53 



peckers themselves, may be induced to make their nests in hollow limbs 

 or boxes erected in orchards, groves and shade trees. It is necessary to 

 provide these artificial sites if those birds which nest in hollows are to be 

 encouraged about our homes. It seems that no better work could be sug- 

 gested for the Boy Scouts or the country boys that wish to do some good 

 in the world and have unbounded energies, than to provide boxes for the 

 bluebirds and wrens. Those intended for the Bluebird should be not less 

 than four by four inches inside measurement, and from eight to ten inches 

 in height with a hole one and three-fourths inches in diameter near the upper 

 part of one side of the box. Boxes of the same construction will attract 

 the wrens, sometimes, unfortunately, to the exclusion of bluebirds and other 

 species, but boxes erected in the garden or in a corner of the orchard near 

 the house or even on the comer of the woodshed or under the eaves of a 

 shed or low barn, with an opening one and one-eighth inches in diameter, 

 will be utilized by the wren, and if a sufficient number is provided the house- 

 holder may succeed in gaining some families of these interesting and bene- 

 ficial birds. The wren has a habit of filling many boxes with sticks and 

 other nesting materials, so that those which really contain no nests should 

 be emptied occasionally to give other birds a chance. Thus, if the boxes 

 are constructed so that one side can be removed when necessary, this work 

 will be facilitated. I have found that the Bluebird will utilize nesting 

 boxes placed on the tops of fence posts about the fields and gardens, but 

 these boxes are more subject to the depredations of cats which dash up 

 the posts and sometimes even secure the mother bird, as I have found upon 

 several occasions. At the same time, these, boxes erected on fence posts 

 are seldom utiHzed by the EngHsh sparrow. Thus, if the marauding cats 

 can be held in check, the Bluebird can be encouraged without undue 

 rivalry with the sparrow for a nesting site. Boxes or hollow limbs should 

 also be erected in the orchard for bluebirds, and if sparrows occupy the 

 nests they may be destroyed by capturing them in nets thrown over the 

 opening of the box after nightfall and then the box emptied of the bulky 

 contents. Martin boxes should consist of four to eight or twelve com- 



