the
boxes are very ornate and make beautiful additions even to the most
carefully kept estate. One can buy them at prices varying from
thirty-five cents to thirty-five dollars each. Among the many
responsible manufacturers that may be recommended are:

The Crescent Company, "Birdville," Toms River, New Jersey; Pinedale
Bird Nesting Box Company, Wareham, Massachusetts; The Audubon Bird
House Company, Meriden, New Hampshire; Maplewood Biologica Laboratory,
Stamford, Connecticut; Jacobs Bird House Company, 404 South Washington
St., Waynesburg, Pa.; Decker Brothers, Rhinebeck, New York; Winthrop
Packard, Canton, Massachusetts.

[Illustration: Gourds and Boxes for Martins]

It is not necessary, however, to buy boxes to put {220} up for birds.
Equally useful ones can be made in the Manual Training Department of
any school, or in the basement or woodshed at home. If you do not know
how to begin, you should buy one bird box and construct others similar
for yourself. Men sometimes make the mistake of thinking it is
absolutely necessary that such boxes should conform strictly to certain
set dimensions. Remember that the cavities in trees and stumps, which
birds naturally use, show a wide variety in size, shape, and location.
A many-roomed, well-painted Martin house makes a pleasing appearance in
the landscape, but may not be attractive to the Martins. As a boy I
built up a colony of more than fifteen pairs of these birds by the
simple device of rudely partitioning a couple of soap boxes. The
entrances to the different rooms were neither uniform in size nor in
shape, but were such as an untrained boy could cut out with a hatchet.
A dozen gourds, each with a large hole in the side, completed the
tenements for this well-contented Martin community.

_Some Rules for Making and Erecting Bird Boxes._--Here are a few simple
rules on the making and placing of bird boxes:

1. In all nest boxes, except those designed for Martins, the opening
should be several inches above the floor, thus conforming to the
general plan of a Woodpecker's hole, or natural cavity in a tree.

2. As a rule nest boxes should be erected on poles from ten to thirty
feet from the ground, or fastened to the sides of trees where limbs do
not interfere with the outlook. The main exception is in the case of
Wrens, whose boxes or gourds can be nailed or wired in fruit trees or
to the side of buildings.

3. Martin houses should be erected on poles at least