Bake NODUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
Pia NeO ones BOON] SOG B-TAy 
2001 NorTH CLARK STREET, CHICAGO 14, ILLINOIS 
Number 68 December, 1948 
Observations of a Hill-billy 
By Louis G. FLENTGE 
SINCE MOVING FROM THE PLAINS of Illinois to the hills of Arkansas we 
have been forced to accept the inevitable and become known as “hill-billies.”’ 
Our first impression was one of disgust at being referred to as such but 
the idea has grown on us to the point where we are honored by the 
implication. At least, we have found the birds again and they have found 
us and together we will spend many hours of relaxation and enjoyment in 
our mutual understanding. 
Do you sometimes wonder what happened to the Bluebirds that used to 
nest in your back yard? They are here in the beautiful Ozarks where they 
are relatively safe from the depredations of the neighbor’s cat and the 
speeding automobiles. I remember an experience of a few years ago that 
proved to be quite disheartening. Having read of the wonderful success of 
Mr. Musselmann in attracting Bluebirds to nesting sites along the country 
roads, we decided to attempt a similar project. We put out a number of 
Bluebird boxes along a number of country roads and religiously inspected 
the boxes at regular intervals. We were rewarded by having a few Blue- 
birds nest in some of the boxes. The percentage was relatively small and 
over a three-year period we decided to give it up for a bad job. It seems 
that the houses provided nesting places for sparrows if placed too close to 
a building. When placed in a pasture, the cattle used them for scratching 
posts and invariably knocked them to the ground. If placed close to the 
road, the tourists made a point of stopping to investigate, often removing 
the top or side of the house and forgetting to replace it. Then there was 
the problem of dogs which seemed to always turn up when we made our 
regular inspection of the boxes. After three years of this we could not see 
that we were making any progress, so abandoned the Bluebird project. 
We were left with about a dozen Bluebird boxes that had been presented 
to us by a director of the Illinois Audubon Society and shame-facedly we 
admit that they were stored in our basement for a number of years. When 
moving to Arkansas we decided to bring them along and put them up some- 
where on the farm just to see what would happen. Arriving here on June 
15th we were sure that the nesting season was too far advanced to do any 
good for this year but for lack of a better place to put them we nailed three 
of them to posts near the house. The next morning a pair had started to 
build in one of the houses and before the week was out another had been 
taken. Now we are enjoying the fruits of our labors. We are being 
rewarded for our small effort by several families of Bluebirds that spend 
Ef] 
