If nest boxes are attached to slanting tree trunks or branches, they 
should always be placed on the under side, so that the entrance 
holes look downward. This position makes it difficult for the rain to 
enter, and easy for the birds to leave or approach the nest. 
Another attraction for the feathered guests at this season is a 
quantity of nesting material — short strings, woolen yarn, strips of 
muslin, cotton wool, feathers and tissue paper, placed where the 
birds can get it easily, but where it does not make the garden look un- 
sightly. I have known a robin to use in making its nest an entire pillow 
slip torn in strips an inch wide, and I have seen a Baltimore oriole's 
nest made entirely of white silk. 
Perhaps there is nothing more attractive to birds in hot weather 
than clean, cool water. They need water to bathe in and to drink, and 
if we give them all the water they want, they are less likely to take our 
small fruits, which they often eat perhaps chiefly for the fluid they 
contain. And the making of combination bird baths and drinking pools 
gives almost unlimited opportunity for doing beautiful things in a 
garden. A bird bath may be anything from a simple earthenware 
saucer with half an inch of water, set on the lawn, to the most elaborate 
bronze or marble fountain. Of course, there are certain essentials 
which a successful bird bath must have. One of these is a shallow 
place where the birds may enter the water, which at this point should 
not exceed half an inch in depth. The bottom should be rather rough 
or covered with sand or fine pebbles, in order to give the little bathers 
a secure footing. It should slope very gradually to a depth of at least 
three inches, for many birds, although they will not take a plunge, like 
to hop out from the shallows into deeper water. Most of the bird 
baths advertised by dealers are improperly made in this respect, and 
for that reason often serve only as drinking pools. 
Charming and inexpensive bird baths may be made with con- 
crete, either alone or in connection with rocks cropping out of the 
ground. They can be of any size, from a foot or two in diameter to a 
small pond, provided only that the few essentials are not neglected. 
While gently running water is always desirable, it is not necessary, 
and one of my most successful bird baths is simply swept out with a 
stiff broom about every other day and replenished with a few pails of 
fresh water. Shrubs, flowers and ferns planted about such a pool may 
greatly enhance its beauty and will help to attract the birds. 
Of the simpler bird baths I know none more beautiful or more 
popular with feathered bathers than a common boulder such as we see 
in thousands of New England pastures. Sometimes we are fortunate 
enough to find one like the Hale Memorial in the Meriden Bird Club 
Sanctuary. This boulder has a natural hollow on the upper side, 
which, when filled with water from the pipe which supplies it, makes 
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