38 



Museum Bulletin 



THE NEXT REGULAR MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION 



will be held in the assembly hall of the Museum, 154 Stuyves- 

 ant place, St. George, on Friday Evening, May 21, 1915, at 

 8:15 o'clock. Reports will be presented by the officers of the 

 Association and the Board of Trustees ; and five trustees are to 

 be elected to fill vacancies which will occur by reason of the 

 expiration of the terms of office of Howard R. Bayne, William 

 T. Davis, Charles A. Ingalls and S. McKee Smith. 



As already announced by postal card a meeting will also be 

 held on Saturday afternoon May 22, at the old colonial cottage 

 on New Dorp Lane and Cedar Grove Avenue, New Dorp, to 

 formally assume possession of the property recently donated 

 to the Association by Dr. Nathaniel L. and Mrs. Britton. 



Arthur Hollick, 



Secretary. 



The bird house contest, conducted among the school children 

 by the Bird Lovers' Club, and mentioned in the last Bulletin, was 

 concluded the latter part of April and proved to be a surprising 

 success. A total of 232 bird houses were constructed, of which 

 127 were brought to the Museum. Of these, 24 received prizes 

 and 12 were given honorable mention. About a dozen were en- 

 tered by girls, two winning prizes— one a first. 



Great originality was displayed by many of the contestants 

 both in the matter of design and the selection of materials. How- 

 ever, in spite of the specific suggestions furnished the schools at 

 the opening of the competition regarding proper dimensions, etc., 

 for correct bird houses, there were nevertheless many grotesque 

 and useless creations submitted. Probably the most common mis- 

 take made was that of building the bird box too closely after the 

 pattern of a human dwelling, with several windows, two or more 

 rooms, a doorway on the ground floor, a chimney, an elaborate 

 front porch and, frequently, with too much space in the interior 

 of the house. 



It was particularly interesting that two out of the four first 

 prize houses should have been from pupils who had never taken 

 shop work of any kind ; and that many of the poorest houses 

 came from certain schools where shop work is emphasized. It is 

 true, on the other hand, that bad houses were often encountered 



