very ready to use the nesting
places you make. These are the Robin, Wren, and Phoebe. But each
bird wants its own kind exactly right, or will not use it.

First the Robin wants a shelf, as in the picture. It should be hung
against a tree or a building, about ten feet up, and not much exposed to
the wind. It should also be in a shady place or at least not where it
gets much sun.

The nails sticking up on the floor are to hold the nest so the wind will
not blow it away. The Phoebe-shelf is much the same only smaller.

The Wren-box should be about four or five inches wide and six inches
high inside, with a hole exactly seven eighths inch wide. If any bigger,
the Wren does not like it so well, and other birds may drive the Wren
away. Many Wren-boxes are made of tomato tins, but these are hard to cut
a hole in. The Wren-box should be hung where the sun never shines on it
all summer, as that would make it too hot inside.

TALE 81

A Hunter's Lamp

[Illustration: A Hunter's Lamp]

In the old pioneer days, every hunter used to make himself a lamp, for
it was much easier to make than a candle. It is a good stunt in
Woodcraft to make one. Each woodcrafter should have one of his own
handiwork. There are four things needed in it: The bowl, the wick, the
wick-holder and some fat, grease, or oil.

For the bowl a big clam shell does well.

For wick a strip of cotton rag rolled into a cord as thick as a slate
pencil, and about two inches long; a cotton cord will do, or perhaps the
fibrous bark of milkweed or other native stuff is the truly woodcraft
thing.

For wick-holder get a piece of brick, stone, or a small clam shell about
as big as a half dollar. Bore a hole through the middle to hold the
wick. It is not easy to get the hole through without splitting the
stone, but sometimes one can find a flat pebble already bored. Sometimes
one can make a disc of clay with a hole in it, then burn this hard in a
fierce fire, but the most primitive way is to rub the bump of a small
clam shell on a flat stone till it is worn through.

For oil use the fat, grease, lard, or butter of any animal, if it is
fresh, that is without salt in it.

Fill the bowl with the grease, soak the wick in grease and set it in the
holder so that half an inch sticks up; the rest is in the grease. The
holder rests on the bottom of the bowl.

Light the end that sticks up. It will burn with a clear, steady light
till all the oil is used up.

To have