Pee AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
Piste Om oA UD UBO ON. 5 0.C DH Toy 
2001 NorRTH CLARK STREET, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
Number 83 March, 1940 
Increasing Quail and Bluebirds by Two Hundred 
and Two Thousand 
By T. E. MUSSELMAN, A.M., Sc.D. 
THE HOBBIES and recreational activities of the average business man seldom 
turn to conservation. Mine have. Ten years ago I became cognizant of the 
fact that bluebirds seldom nested in Adams County. The answer, however, 
was simple. The old-time rail fences, the wooden fence posts and the stubs 
of the apple trees which had formerly acted as host to the downy wood- 
peckers’ excavations had disappeared. The first were replaced by iron and 
wire, while modern horticulture elected that orchard trees be trimmed and 
the stubs be painted. Bluebirds had few places to nest so their numbers 
became fewer. The thought came to me that artificial boxes might be made 
to fill the deficiency. 
To make houses attractive to birds, one must duplicate the natural 
nesting site as nearly as possible. I secured a stub formerly excavated by 
a downy and later taken over by a pair of bluebirds. The entrance hole was 
approximately 1% inches in diameter. The cavity was somewhat gourd 
shaped and was eight inches deep. After experimenting I developed a box 
that was 93% effective in securing these lovely little blue-backed thrushes. 
Its measurements are: sides, 944 x 9 x 4 inches; front, 9 x 3% inches; bottom, 
3%x3% inches; top, 5x5 inches and hinged to back; entrance hole, 14 
inches and placed 1% inches from top; back, 5%4 x 15 inches. The box looks 
like a miniature mail box. 
A local manufacturer supplied box boards and crating, free. My janitor 
cut the parts with an electric saw and packed them in cartons. These were 
fabricated and painted during the winter evenings and were nailed to their 
permanent sites early in the spring. 
The first route extended thirty-eight miles toward Hamilton on route 
96; the second extended sixty-eight miles toward Meredosia along route 104; 
the third extended eighteen miles along route 24 to Payson, while three 
additional routes follow gravel topped country roads. Boxes occur about 
every quarter to one-half mile. 
Placement is an important element if one wishes success. Boxes on 
fence posts bordering heavy woods often attract chickadees, Bewick’s and 
house wrens. If they are placed six to eight feet in the trees one may expect 
titmice. A box ten feet up on an exposed telephone post normally attracts 
Se: 
