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and probably many more different species of wild British birds may 
be easily induced to nest in boxes or suitable holes made in dead 
wood, or in old walls where a loose brick may be taken out, and 
a tight fitting wooden lid may be wedged in; one of the upper 
corners of the lid should be cut off to form an entrance. Six- 
gallon casks in trees, and lockers in barns, are attractive to 
Owls, but Starlings are apt to usurp them. In a barn in this 
neighbourhood there were two nests of white Owls at one time ; 
there is merely a wooden shelf with a raised ledge placed under 
the owlet holes in each gable, these shelves were covered with 
pellets of rats felt on which the eggs were laid. 
The Tawny Owl is said to prefer those casks which are placed in 
ash trees and elms; and the Barn or White Owl those in elms and 
oaks. The following birds are fond of nesting on shelves or ledges, 
in summer houses and open sheds, or on trelliswork, or on trees 
trained against walls : — Spotted Flycatcher, Pied Flycatcher, Missel - 
thrush, Songthrush, Blackbird, Bedbreast, Bedstart, Pied Wagtail, 
House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, and probably 
many others. 
It is likely that all those birds which naturally nest in holes not 
of their own making might be induced to build in boxes; for 
examples, the Marsh Tit, Tree Sparrow, Jackdaw, and Chough, 
(where that bird occurs in villages, as .in some parts of Wales 
where it still nests in churches,) also other birds such as Wood- 
peckers which usually bore their own holes for nesting. Starlings, 
and great Bats often take possession of Woodpeckers’ nesting holes. 
Gardens and shrubberies may, with very little trouble, be ren- 
dered highly attractive to birds in a state of nature, without in 
any way detracting from their appearance, but rather the reverse. 
Some gardens and shrubberies are, of course, much better suited 
for the wants of many species of birds than others are. There 
should be variety of soil and of trees, and rough ground and water, 
coniferai for the Goldcrested Begulus, long grass in the shrubbery or 
around the apple trees, may be left to grow for the Partridges, 
Tree Pipits, and Willow Warblers, and this grass may be greatly 
ornamented by sticking into it all the hardy bulbs that can be 
spared, such as snowdrop, crocus, hyacinth, &c. Holes may be 
pierced with a stout walking stick, they should be about nine or 
ten inches deep, and a single bulb dropped into each. A furze 
