The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-04-08

into your garden in search of home they do not, like Senator Copper of Tonapah Ditch demand that you shall
 Build it new-fangled:
 Scalloped and angled: Fine, like a wedding cake garnished
 with pills
 On the other hand, they practice the simple life, and the simpler you make any house you intend for their accom- modation, the better it will suit them. While they will often occupy brand new. brightly painted house. they seem
 to prefer one which is old and weather
 beaten. .-
 IT. the February number of Bird Lore there are three excellent articles on Bird-houses and how to make them, and five pages of nest-box notes, be-
 sides over thirty instructive illustra-
 tions showing the styles ofhouses swhich
 may be made for the accommodation of
 wrens. bluebirds. chickadees, tree swallows, martins, flickers, screech-
 owls, and other birds and photographs showing the houses actually occupied by
 feathered tenants. Any enc desiring to
 establish a colony of birds in the
 garden or about the house, shorld look
 up this ''Bird-house' number of ''Bird-
 Lore." but h the meantime. here are a
 few suggestions on the subject which
 may be of use to bird-lover landlords. Have your bird-houses ready as early as possible; some birds are sus- picious of new features appearing in an otherwise familiar landscape. No one l need be afraid to try to make a bird box; many a six-year-old boy knows enough of carpentry to make homes | which will meet the requirements of several kinds of birds. Nor does the
 operation require q chest of tools; an old saw of any kind a hammer aad few nails are the only implements which
 are really necessary. though the finished product might look heater if to these were added 8 square and an | auger with bits of different sizes--the ! latter. for making doorways to the dwellings. One of the simplest bird- houses which one can make. consists Of box of which the sour sides are four shingles, and the ton and bottom two square bits of wood to which the shingles are nailed. If a hole about one and a half inches square is now
 cut in the end of one of the shingles, to serve as an entrance, and the box nailed against tree trunk or the side. ! of harm. with the hole end uppermost it is more than likely that it will be 1 occupied by the first bluebird who finds
 it in season. Very often it is not ne-
 cessary to go to even this little trouble: any small box large enough to accomo- date Q blue birds, wren's or tree-swaI- lows nest will answer. A small
 starch box is the very thing. A shingie
 or piece of board should be nailed on, top in such a way that it projects for
 several inches: this will serve as roof
 and prevents the rain from driving into the entrance MT. E. H. Forbush. State ornithologist for Massachusetts,, gives the following figures for the sizes of entrance holes: For chickadees. one and one-fourth inches; for wrenss one
 and seven-eigths inches; for bluebirds
 and swallows, one and one half inehes; for martins, two and one-half inches; for flickers and screech owls, three and one-half inches. hA .*&. ;.
 Any one who has little time to de-
 vote to the subject may have a num-
 Der of neat bird-houses, built for a
 very few cents apiece. The cheapest plan is to make rough. working draw 1 ing of such styles of houses as one de-