Alabama, ipi8. 75 



PUTTING UP BIRD BOXES 



How TO Make and Whe;re; to Place; The^m 



THERE is no keener pleasure derived from any source than that 

 which comes from the possession of bird neighbors. No class 

 of tenants give more complete satisfaction than box-dwelling birds, 

 houses for which can be cheaply and easily erected. No class of 

 tenants can be relied upon for more full and complete rental, in the 

 shape of noxious insects destroyed, delightful music rendered and, 

 further, they are an unfailing source of amusing and instructive 

 incidents. The boy or girl who puts up boxes for the birds to nest 

 in, supplies them with drinking and bathing places, and provides 

 food for those species which remain in winter, is certain of an 

 unfailing source of pleasure, which can never be known to any one 

 who pursues them with bean-shooter or stones, or simply ignores 

 their presence. The chances are far better that the bird-loving boy 

 or girl will make the better citizen. 



Birds, like human beings, are capable of adapting themselves to 

 circumstances to a very great degree. This is well illustrated in the 

 barn and cliff swallows, which in settled localities have taken to 

 nesting on the rafters and under the eaves of barns, instead of upon 

 the faces of cliffs as did their ancestors, and as their brethren of less 

 settled sections still do. In preparing nesting places for the birds, 

 it should be borne in mind that the kind which will most readily 

 appeal to them are such as most nearly approach to their natural 

 nesting sites. Bluebirds and house wrens are the species which 

 most quickly respond to an invitation to nest in artificial sites about 

 our homes, and are the least critical as to the architecture of their 

 dwellings. The roughest shelters and the most ornate structures are 

 both acceptable to these welcome bird neighbors, but plain and 

 weather-stained boxes are most sure of an early tenant, though 

 with the bluebird and house wren the appeal of a convenient knot- 

 hole or natural cavity in a limb is apt to be stronger than the attrac- 

 tions of any box. 



Purple martins prefer to nest in colonies, and elaborate, many- 

 roomed houses are often fully occupied in sections where the birds 



