144 
GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
lovable bird has, however, very decided tastes in architecture ; 
his house must be "just so," and, by the bye, it should be 
completed before his arrival, early in March. In shape it 
should be long and deep, the interior suggesting the hollow 
of a tree. Knowing this, any young architect can suit him to 
perfection by cutting a section of some fallen log or limb and 
nailing to this two small boards, top and bottom, one for a 
piazza and the other for a roof. 
Again, in many localities martins will readily make them- 
selves at home ; they become great favorites on account of 
their grace and their entertaining habits. Most of their food 
they get on the wing. They are accustomed to live together 
in larger colonies than birds of less powerful flight, and so 
they need a spacious residence. Being so conspicuous, this 
needs special protection ; a galvanized iron pipe has been 
found to make an excellent standard on which to set it, the 
house thus being completely insulated from four-footed visitors. 
On the whole, the best style of bird box is that which fur- 
nishes its little tenants with the most complete shelter from 
the sun and storm. This can be secured by cutting the door- 
way to the bird’s own measure, and also by placing it high up 
under the projecting roof. The door-size for a chickadee, for 
instance, is only about one inch, or at most an inch and a 
quarter, in diameter, whereas a hole seven eighths of an inch 
in diameter exactly fits a wren. To crows, jays, gray squirrels, 
cats, and such raiders this house in itself would then signify 
a polite but Arm "No admittance.” 
Moreover, the projecting roof serves a further purpose in 
preventing pussy from indulging in her naughty pastime of 
reaching in and clawing out the birds and their children. 
Where bird boxes are nailed upon poles or trees, they may be 
made puss-proof by means of a sort of collar of wire netting 
which will stand out at right angles around the trunk or pole. 
