File:Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada (1903) (14751637415).jpg

Identifier: birdsintheirrela00wee (find matches)
Title: Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Weed, Clarence Moores, 1864-1947 Dearborn, Ned, 1865-
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Philadelphia, London, J. B. Lippincott Company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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by sixinches, and six by six or six by eight may be better. Bycutting the boards in multiples of these numbers, one caneasily make a house with several compartments; for thereare some birds, as martins, tree-swallows, and pigeons, thatlike to live in families or colonies. The size of the doorwayis important. It should be just large enough to admit thebird. A larger opening not only looks bad, but it exposesthe inhabitants to dangers of cats and other enemies. Birdswhich build in houses, aside from doves and pigeons, arebluebirds, wrens, tree-swallows, martins, and sometimes thechickadee. For the wren and chickadee the opening shouldbe an inch-and-a-half auger-hole, and for the others it shouldbe two inches. Only one opening should be provided foreach house or compartment. A perch or door-step should beprovided just below each door. It is here that the birds oftenstop to arrange their toilets; and when the mistress is busywith domestic affairs in-doors, the male bird often sits outside
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PROFESSOR BAILEY S SUGGESTIONS FOR BIRD-HOUSES.(After Cornell University Experiment Station.) 311 312 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. and entertains her with the latest neighborhood gossip. Thesehouses should be placed on poles or on buildings in somewhatsecluded places. Martins and tree-swallows like to build theirnests twenty-five feet or more above the ground, but the otherbirds usually prefer an elevation less than twelve feet. Newly-made houses, and particularly newly-painted ones, do not oftenattract the birds. Bird-houses should be protected from cats. If the housesare in trees, several rings of barbed wire may run around thetree spirally, near together, and held in place by staples. Ifthe houses are on poles which the cats can climb, the samedevice may be used, or a horizontal shelf of tin may befastened below the house. One of the commonest difficulties with the use of bird-houses is that they are taken possession of by English spar-rows to the exclusion of the native birds.

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