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3-25-32 



severely v/hen they are young at) as to produce a lot of crotches. 



In these days of nodern tree surgery, hole-nesting birds canH find 

 so many tree hollov/s in wlach to live, hut most of them take very well to 

 "bird houses. 



TThen you see a house wren nesting in a discarded tin can, or an 

 old hat, or the empty sleeve of a scarecrow, or the cranial cavity of a 

 weathered cow's skull, you realize that "bird-housing requirements arc few 

 and simple, 



A bird house doesn't have to be anything elaborate. To malce the 

 nesting safer, and more attr£u;tiVL bo the birds, however, Mr. McAtec sug- 

 gests the bird house should be durable, rain-proof, cool, and readily ac- 

 cessible for cleaning, 



Althougli we have more need for bird houses "under present day con- 

 ditions, this idea of providing nest boxes for birds is nothing new. Mr. 

 McAtee says that early records of Asia Minor tell of the use of doves and 

 pigeons for carrying messages, and that means they must have had houses 

 for the birds. The shelves for swallows in Japanese temples and the feed- 

 ing towers with nesting places maintained by the BPaimans of India must go 

 baclc hundreds and even tliousands of years. 



In this country the early colonists foimd that American Indians of 

 some of the more agricultural tribes of the eastern sections hung up govirds 

 for purple martins on trees trimmed to bare stubs for the purpose. That 

 practice has been kept up by white men in much the same form tliroxigh the 

 Southeastern States riglit down to the present hour. Since colonial times, 

 folks in the Southeast have put up houses for purple martins and shelves 

 for cliff swallows and barn swallows. 



You know the Indians have always had the reputation of laiowing a 

 good bit about wild life, Tliey evidently knew what they were doing v/hen 

 they trimmed those trees to bare stubs. Some folirs put bird houses in 

 untrimcd trees instead of on posts or poles a-id then r/onder v/liy the houses 

 don't prove successful in increasing the number of birds around the place. 

 Such a location may look more natural to some o"^ -js humans, but it evident- 

 ly doesn't seem quite ^rafc to tlie birds. ArA ::.:v.oa you don't have to look 

 further than that p.rev i ng beast of prey, the house cat, to find why birds 

 prefer houses not so easily reached by their onc-Jos on the gro-und. 



Another cau^r of failure of some bird houses is that the entrance 

 hole is made too sp?.0.1 -ior the bird for wliich o dox is intended. But if 

 you war.t practical :;:u/..'uotions on how to bLv\ld bird house, so as to maJ<:e 

 it cont'or table and ai v. oci,ive to the birds you rdiit about, I'd suggest'you 

 write the U,S. DeprTjr-cmcnt of AgriCTolture for Jaincrs' Bulletin lie. 1456 on 

 "Homos for Birds". 



And in all tMs business of attracting birds, especially during hot 

 weather, nothing works much better than drinlcing and bathing places. Mr, 

 McAtee suggests that the bird's v/ater supply should be a pool not more tloan 

 a few inches deep, vdth the bottom grad\ially sloping upward toward the edge. 

 The edge and the bottom should both be rou^ so to give the feathered drinlcer 

 or bather a good safe footing. 



