Notes from Field and Study
Sparrow Proof Houses
Mr. D. R. Geery, of Greenwich, Conn., sends us descriptions of the two birdhouses here figured. When designed for Bluebirds, they should be suspended from
Made of rough boards. Size, 6 inches high, 5½ inches
square at the bottom, 3½ inches square at the top.
a limb ten or twelve feet from the ground, in such a manner as to allow them to swing slightly. Mr. Geery writes: “It may happen that the Sparrows will go to these houses and even commence to build, but, as soon as they find that they swing and are not firm, they will abandon them
Made from a bark-covered log, 8 inches long and 8 inches in
diameter, a hole 5 inches in diameter being bored from end
to end, leaving an out wall 11⁄ inches thick.
entirely. Wren boxes should be stationary, with an opening not much larger than a twenty-five-cent piece, and placed so as to be well shaded most of the day.”
A Musical Woodpecker
In the pursuit of my profession I had occasion for some time to travel over a certain road, along which is a telephone line, the glass insulators of which are placed on short pieces of hard wood which are nailed directly to the post.
Probably half a dozen times, when on this road, I saw a male Downy Woodpecker perched directly beneath the hard wood block, pecking at it in a manner to make the wire ring, then pausing and evidently listening to the music it had produced.
When the vibration ceased the performance was repeated and continued at intervals until I was obliged to drive by and frighten the bird away.—Dr. D. L. Burnett, South Royalton, Vt.
An Ornithologist at San Juan
An English newspaper correspondent, who called at the American Museum of Natural History to identify certain birds which he had seen in Cuba, gave an interesting illustration of how, under the most adverse circumstances, an enthusiastic naturalist may exercise his powers of observation. He said, “I noticed at San Juan a bird which seemed to be much alarmed by the firing. He hopped from the bushes to the lower branches of trees, and then, limb by limb, reached the tree tops,” and continued with a readily identifiable description of the singular Cuban Cuckoo, locally known as Arriero (Saurothera merlini).
There is one bird in Cuba, the Turkey Buzzard or Vulture, of which many of our soldiers probably retain a too vivid recollection, but how many of the men who were at San Juan can recall any other bird observed during the day of battle?
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