Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-12-21
This and That
Bv Charles E. Trace.peU
"FESsENDEN STREET.


II know will have to hurry up. but would
like to build bluebird house for a certain
Christmas present, and wonder II you can
tell me how to 60 about 1t.
II have heard there are bluebirds around
here in winter. Is that true? I guess it
would be silly to put up such house If
there are no birds to enter 1t.
II think the bluebirds are true Christ
mas birds, and would like to have house
ready for them if they come.
very truly yours. L. c. j."
The best way to make bluebird house
in hurry is to take soft pine, reasonably
thick, or at least as thick as you can ind,
if you can find good pine at all, and then
make the house according to the follow
ing standard prescriptions:
Size of floor, by inches; depth Of
house, inches; diameter Of door, IN
inches: height of door above floor. 6 inches.
Such a house, with roof slightly ex-
tended all around, may be built by any
fairly competent carpenter in an hour
or so.
The thicker the pieces of wood. the more
protection from heat in summer.
White paint may be used. or any dark
color such as green, brown or gray.
Implanted does very well, since the wood
Weatners to nice color over the months.
This takes time, of course. and so paint
may be better, under the circumstances.
One thing is certain. no bluebird will
try to get in while the paint is sticky!
There are plenty of bluebirds here in
the cold.
Some of them in our correspondents very
neighborhood.
One should not expect them to take to a
house, even though built for them, until
next spring.
Very early, around the first Of March,
or few days before that, they may look
it over.
BY that time the human smell will have
worn off it. And the paint SMELL too.
We suggest plain white paint for the
sides and dark green for the overhanging
roof
It is best to place the house on a tree
or post about feet high.
One instinctively wants to put it higher.
but the experts say that the lower the
better.
One reason for this is that the low place.
ment keeps the common sparrows out. These
birds do not like low nests.
AS for cats, bluebirds do not fear them
one-tenth as much as the cat haters.
Birds and cats have been living to-
gether for centuries. That is natures way
It is only the person newly interested in
bird feeding who sometimes grows explosive
over cats.
Cats do catch BIRDS Of course-and SO
do people.
Some birds eat the eggs of other birds, too.
All in all, the balance between damage
done birds by cats and hurt done them by
human beings would show very much in
favor of the cats
It is the human element in the scene
who has killed many millions more birds
even exterminated some of them altogether,
as for instance the passenger pigeon.
The bluebird house Is best placed SO
that the entrance faces south.
This will keep out the rains that come
from the nor'west and nor'east in summer
Do not worry over other birds going in
That must be left to fortune. One builds
house for a certain Species but there Is
no telling what takes it over. Do not
grow angry over this. Remember the old
axiom, There is many Slip" etc.
Even squirrels will enter bluebird houses
by enlarging the door with their cutting
teeth. One should not mind this, either
II squirrel takes over in winter, let him
have it.
Just build another bluebird house, and
be sure to get 1t up by February, at the
latest.