Destructive Insects and Utility of Birds. 
245 
every one may in some degree promote. Every owner of a wood, 
field, or garden, ought to spare old trees, in the cavities of 
which those birds who prefer hatching in obscurity (such as the 
titmouse, the common creeper, the wren, the owl, the common 
stare, the grey redstjirt, the woodpecker, &c.), would find a 
proper asylum. If the dry leaves and detritus be taken out of 
such holes, and if when they run perpendicularly down the 
trunk, a small boaid with an opening of about 2 inches in 
diameter be nailed over, they will soon be peopled, and in a few 
hours the lodgers will amply repay the pains taken on their 
behalf. Let the little square boxes (which in some countries the 
law obliges people to hang out of doors for starlings) be imitated, 
and care taken that the young are out of all danger of being 
carried off. And when the thrush, the chaffinch, and others 
make nests on a tree, let them be protected from children and 
cats by surrounding the trunk with a crown of thorns. To 
compensate the want of hollow trees for those birds which choose 
holes to hatch in, it is easy to make small boxes of common 
wood, closed on three sides, but having on the fourth a small 
opening left, and place beside them a round piece of wood to 
serve as a perch ; such a little house should be placed facing 
eastward, under the cornice of a roof, or in the branches of some 
tree at a height of from 10 to 12 feet from the ground, not too 
much under the shade of the leaves, and in a retired spot. These 
hatching-boxes can be made of different sizes ; the titmouse is 
very fond of a box of about 8 or 10 inches in length inside, and 
of 3 or 4 inches in height : of course larger birds prefer roomier 
berths. These boxes should be painted of a dark-grey colour, 
and well garnished with moss. Much good has been done in 
this way, now that the importance of encouraging bird-hatching 
is more generally appreciated in zoological gardens, agricul- 
tural schools, and horticultural establishments. Under the 
advice of men of science and of judicious landholders, many 
thousands of hatching-boxes are being set up, and no outlay is 
more quickly remunerative. Whoever possesses a suitable piece 
of ground may give himself a real treat, and at the same time 
much gratify the winged gentry, by planting a small space 
thickly with thorn-bushes, cherry-trees, oaks, firs, &c., and 
covering the ground with branches of the prickly thorn so as to 
prevent the intrusion of cats. Once established, the plantation 
will soon be the assembly-ground of multitudes of small birds; 
they are very fond of such thickets, because of the sense of 
security they impart, and the influence of their vicinity will soon 
be noticeable. Many of these asylums have been such pro- 
tection to large properties that fruit has ripened even in 
unfavourable seasons. During both winter and summer the 
