Norwich bulletin., 1916-06-13
FO0KTOI2THT7QkVa 7TUE CHIMNEY

Perhaps the most remarkable nest was that of a phoebe, which was built un- der the cornice of the piazza within | reach of my hand. We had little school in the morning at the house, | and ten children were continually run ming up and down the piazza shout | iEg at the top of their voices, but the l phoebe went on building her nest, then | matched her eggs, and fed her young | without fear though she could see | everyone and everyone could see her.
 T was also surprised to find how friendly birds. even of the same spec ieS can become. For instance, we had l fourteen pairs of wrens on a single acre, some of the nests being not more then fifteen feet apart. We also had robins nests only twelve yards apart.
 The bluebirds, on the other hand, do not like each other, and would not
 tolerate another pair of bluebirds
 nearer than one hundred yards.
 tfThe first year we had no hickers,
 but there was a pair nesting in an old
 apple tree on our neighbors' property. During the winter the tree was blown
 down, and our oldest son obtained per
 mission to get it. He cut out the por- ton of the tree which contained the nest, cleaned out tIre hole, and then hung the nest in a dying cherry tree. | The nest was not more than ten yards from the house. but was taken ppos-
 session of in 1914 and again in 1915.
 We had, in 1915, seventy five pairs of martins in an area approximating | ter acres, and expect to have a great many more than this in 1916. We had ! one pair of ed-throated hawks nest ing in our apple orchard, and kept | them for two years, but they develop | ed such fondness for poultry, having | frequently been caught tIlaeving, that l finally we had to shoot them. We | have in the wods a splendid pair of
 barred owls. They come around the
 barns at night. and I suspect them al- 1 so of attempts at chicken thieving, bird in these parts to shoot. There Is 'I nothing good to be said of the screech owl, which we suspect of having been the cause of the mysterious disappear
 ance of many young birds from the nests.
 If anyone wants excitment, I sug- gest that he buy or borrow a stuffed owl, and pit in out in the garden in
 the daytime during the nesting season. i All of the birds in the netghborhood l will learn them quicker than in any other way.S
 ] A census of the species in the one
 hundred acres of fields and woods ir , MT. Grosvenors wild Acres shows ) that last summer sixty species were 5 nesting on tne farm, and 1t Is eD- i, pected that these will be added tc 5 this year.
 sl Commenting upon the story of tht 3 birds at ''W1Id Acres, Mfr. Chapman the Editor of 'Bird-Lore', says: ] aThe birds which MT. Grosvenor hal brought about him are unquestionab1s 5 more his birds than If he had shof l, them and placed their skins in a. cab ]. inet. With their death his responsi :, biIity for their welfare would cease : But a living birds, to which we feel vi d owe protection, is exposed to so man. q | dangers that our fears for its sa1et, e Iare correspondingly aroused Thes
 birds of our garden are our guests t Through the erection Of bird d-house e and by other means we have invite y them to live with us and when the h accept as readily as they have wit l. afr. Grogvenor. they make us rea1l1