CHAPTER VI.

HOW TO MAKE A BACK-YARD AVIARY.

It was before the directors of the Brooklyn Institute had met with success in their silly work of introducing the house-sparrow (known here as the English sparrow) to this country, and long before these foreign pests were spread over the length and breadth of the United States, that the court-house in Covington, Ky., was surmounted by a wooden image of George Washington.

Bird’s-Nests in Washington’s Coat.

All boys know that Washington loved his country, but few know that he was a bird-fancier. That the father of our country loved the native birds is attested by the fact that they built nests in the wooden wrinkles of his sleeves and in the hollow ends of the roll of parchment which he held in his hand. His favorite bird was the red-headed woodpecker. He had it on the brain, and although each year a brood of little red-headed birds were hatched in his head, the dear old patriot never made a wry face, but with a benign smile he gazed over the roof of the livery stable across the street.

Bird’s-Nests in Speaking-Horn.

Upon the same lot with the court-house stood the fire-engine-house, with its old-fashioned lookout tower. On the top of the tower was a weather-vane, made of a great fireman’s horn, but the only voices which ever issued from this old speaking-trumpet were the voices of the purple martins, singing their bubbling love songs, the twittering of their mates, or the impatient piping of the young birds inside their revolving home.

It was in the swinging, moving weather-vane of the engine-house that these birds each year built their nests and reared their young.

A Woodpecker’s House.

There is an army of interesting birds called creepers, sapsuckers, and woodpeckers, which no one has, apparently, thought of providing with homes, yet it is not difficult to suit the woodpeckers with houses.

A substitute for their favorite rotten tree or stump may be made of a sound piece of timber. The log may be squared or rounded, as in nature (Fig. 43). Saw off the bottom so that the log may set upright, then trim off the top end wedge-shaped, to shed the rain or to receive a roof, which will still further protect it from the weather.

Next saw a deep cut as shown by the dotted line, =a=, =b=. With a large-sized auger bore a number of holes in the face of the log; these holes must be bored deep enough to leave a slight indentation in the main part of the log after the piece, =a=, =b=, =c=, =d=, has been removed.

After the holes are bored begin at =c=, =d= and saw to =a=, =b= (Fig. 43), and lift off the piece =a=, =b=, =c=, =d= (Fig. 45).

With chisel and gouge cut out the nest holes. Make them about eight inches deep, as shown in Fig. 44. Fig. 47 gives a cross-section of the hole, showing it to be of the same form as those made by the birds themselves, in George Washington’s head, or the old stump in the woods.

The Perforated Door

may now be replaced and spiked to the log, and the roof (Fig. 46) nailed on the top, which will complete the woodpecker’s home.

A better plan than spiking the door in place is to hang it on hinges, as shown in Fig. 46.

The Hinged Door

should be supplied with a padlock, as a safeguard against children and too-curious grown people. A handful of sawdust thrown into the bottom of each nest-hole will supply the place of the absorbent rotten wood to which these birds are accustomed.

It is claimed that the English sparrow will not nest in a swinging or moving house. If this is true we may

Bring the Martins Back

by supplying them with swinging houses made of dipper and bottle gourds, hung to brackets or to hoops and poles (Figs. 48 and 49).

The Gourds for Bird’s Houses

must be thoroughly dried, and doorways cut in each, near the bottom of the bowl. Never make the entrance to any sort of a bird-house on a line with the bottom of the house, for the nest will block the doorway.

Paint the Gourds

bright red, green, blue, and yellow, and fasten the small ends to the supports with copper wire, as shown in Figs. 48 and 49.

The Wren-House

shown in Fig. 50 is made of a grape-basket, and will not stand rough weather, but if put in a sheltered place it will last a long time. Wrens love to build under a roof of any sort.

Tin-Can Bird-Houses.

Fig. 51 is an old fruit-can. Fig. 52 is the same nailed to a board. These tin cans may not appear beautiful when nailed to tree or shed, but if neatly painted and wired together (Fig. 53) they will present a most attractive appearance. Fig. 54 is a nest of cans, roofed. If a bunch of straw is bound firmly together, and the opposite ends spread over the bird-house (Fig. 55), it will make a very attractive thatched roof.

A House of Straw.

A pretty and durable house may be made by binding straw around hoops, and roofing the structure thus made with a bunch of straw.

Figs. 56, 57, and 58 explain the structure of

A Barrel for a Martin-House

which, when neatly made and thatched with straw, is decidedly ornamental, and will be duly appreciated by your bird friends.

If we can keep the English sparrows away, the bluebirds will nest in any sort of a sheltered hole.

Earthenware flower-pots, as shown in Fig. 59, may be used for bird-houses if you enlarge the holes in their bottoms to serve as doorways, and enclose the upper part between two boards (Figs. 60 and 61) which have previously had places cut out to receive the pots. If any of your shade or fruit-trees have

Old Knot-holes

in them (Fig. 62), the rotten wood can be cleaned out, a frame nailed around the opening, and a neat little door (Fig. 63) put on the frame.

The door should have a hole through it, with a perch or stick attached, and this will make an ideal bird-house.

An Available Supply of Moist Clay

will often induce the cliff-swallows to plant a colony in your neighborhood, and holes made in the gable ends of your stable will invite the social barn-swallow to build under the protecting roof.

Do not fail to keep fresh water, in shallow pans or earthenware dishes, on your lawn, for bird baths.

At my suggestion Samuel Jackson, my young brother-in-law, set out baths upon the lawn last summer, and the photograph on the opposite page is one which he took of a wild robin enjoying his free bath.

There is another

Little Native American

friend which the noisy sparrows are doing their best to drive away. This is the house-wren: as interesting and busy a little mite as ever protected a garden from noxious insects. If you make your wren-house door the size of a silver quarter of a dollar no robber sparrow can enter to despoil the nest.

Of our seven common species of swallows, four are availing themselves of the opportunity offered by the barns for nesting.

Barn-swallows build under roofs; cliff-swallows, under eaves; the white-bellied-swallow and martin, in boxes set up for that purpose, when these shelters are not preëmpted by the English sparrows.

The native swallows destroy an amount of noxious insects beyond calculation, and almost beyond imagination. Without birds this world would, because of insects, be uninhabitable, yet each year two hundred millions of them are sacrificed _for women’s hats and bonnets_. Aside from the inexcusable barbarity of this practice is its menace to our trees, our crops, and our very existence.