42 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
They also have a fancy for ripe persimmons and 
fruits and seeds of various kinds. So you see they 
can keep their tables well supplied. 
“ The blue-bird is usually very peaceable, and 
particularly affectionate to his mate; and many 
farmers welcome him by providing ‘ a snug little 
summer-house in which he can live rent-free. For 
this he more than repays them by the cheerfulness of 
his song and the multitude of injurious insects which 
he daily destroys.’ Once, however, there was some 
trouble about one of these bird-cottages that was put 
up somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania. The 
person who tells the story says : ‘ Near and around 
the house were a number of well-grown apple trees 
and much shrubbery — a very fit haunt for the 
feathered race. About the middle of February the 
blue-birds came ; in a short time they were very 
familiar, and took possession of the box : these con- 
sisted of two or three pairs. By the fifteenth of 
May the blue-birds had eggs, if not young. Now 
the martins arrived in numbers, visited the box ’ — 
martins always think that all the boxes are for them 
— ‘ and a severe conflict ensued. The blue-birds, 
seemingly animated by the right of possession or for 
the protection of their young, were victorious. The 
martins regularly arrived about the middle of May 
for the eight following years, examined the apart- 
