8 THE: AUDUBON BU: ei 
straight in the eyes! I was startled and the snake probably was too, for 
it continued to stare into the light for several minutes, then turned its head 
toward the end of the hollow knot-hole where the seven eggs had been 
resting—and I could guess the rest! All this time the helpless titmice were 
frantically flitting back and forth between the nest and nearby trees, calling 
loudly but hopelessly. In about four minutes I noticed wriggling move- 
ments inside the hole and made out the snake’s body crawling upward 
inside what apparently was an entire hollow trunk. When the tail had 
disappeared from view, I fiashed my light on the spot where the eggs had 
lain the previous day. It was now bare! The dirty work had been done 
thoroughly. 
As I shinned down the trunk to my ladder, one of the titmice flew 
into the tree with a green caterpillar in its bill. It flew to the hole, looked 
in, and flew away screeching bitterly. The food in its bill made me wonder 
whetner the eggs of the previous day had hatched that morning and given 
the marauding snake a meal of young birds instead of eggs. One way or 
the other, my opportunity for observing a titmouse nesting cycle had gone 
with the wind! 
Berwyn, Illinois 
a ee 
Bluebird Houses in Missouri 
WE HAVE received a copy of a letter written by Mr. A. C. Burrill, Curator 
of the Missouri Resources Museum, to Dr. T. E. Musselman, of Quincy, 
whose work with bluebirds in his part of Illinois is well known. The Bulletin 
is happy to have had even a small part in the launching of the campaign 
described in the following paragraphs: 
“Your recent long letter was much appreciated and most welcome. I 
immediately carried it over to the Governor’s wife, Mrs. Donnell, but she 
was out of the city and I have waited to hear from her. The Mansion 
windows are very high on the drive but they wanted the box up where the 
Governor could see it from his desk without having to get up from his chair. 
“T put my box on a fencepost just as you said and got my bluebirds. 
Everybody says the cats will get them that low. I even watched a fox 
squirrel on top of the box, although barbed wire is strung over the tops 
of the posts and under the box, and even watch robins chase the father 
bird, but they stay there. 
“The State Highway Department will permit bluebird houses anywhere 
in our state on highway fenceposts, and the State Garden Clubs have taken 
up our Boy Scout campaign of 5,000 N. Y. A. bluebird houses and are now 
making several thousand more under the women’s drive to build bluebird 
trails from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis and on to Sedalia, and over High- 
way 50 from coast to coast. They expect to get their houses up before their 
convention in Sedalia in May. 
“Your article some years back in the Illinois Audubon Bulletin stirred 
me up. I then stirred up the N. Y. A. and Boy Scouts, and a friend of mine 
in the Garden Club stirred her members up. You should take some credit 
forsthiss 
