22 BIRDS 



and gardens while waiting for a mate to arrive from the 

 South. I 



Now is the time to have ready on top of the grape arbor, 

 or mider the eaves of the barn, or nailed up in the apple tree, 

 or set up on poles, the little one-roomed houses that blue- 

 birds are only too happy to occupy. More enjoyable 

 neighbors it would be hard to find. Sparrows will fight for 

 the boxes, it is true, but if there are plenty to let, and the 

 sparrows are persistently driven off, the bluebirds, which 

 are a little larger though far less bold, quickly take pos- 

 session. Birds that come earliest in the season and feed on 

 insects, before they have time to multiply, are of far 

 greater value in the field, orchard, and garden than birds 

 that delay their return until warm weather has brought 

 forth countless swarms of insects far beyond the control of 

 either bird or man. Many birds would be of even greater 

 service than they are if they received just a httle en- 

 couragement to make their homes nearer ours. They 

 could save many more millions of dollars' worth of crops 

 for the famers than they do if they were properly pro- 

 tected while rearing their ever-hungry families. As two or 

 even three broods of bluebirds may be raised in a box each 

 spring, and as insects are their most approved baby food, 

 it is certainly to our interest to set up nurseries for them 

 near our homes. 



But when people are not thoughtful enough to provide 

 them before the first of March, the bluebirds hunt for a 

 cavity in a fence rail, or a hole in some old tree, preferably 

 in the orchard, shortly after their arrival, and proceed to 

 line it with grass. From three to six pale blue eggs are 

 laid. At first the babies are blind, helpless, and almost 

 naked. Then they grow a suit of dark feathers with 



