An ordinary box may be cut and rearranged with a pitched roof, an inner floor, and the three divisions. A small hole is bored at each side of the box and a round stick passed through it, so that six or eight inches of the wood will project at either side to serve as perches. Another perch can be arranged at the top of the box, and this bird-house is then securely fastened to the upper end of a post and braced there with bracket-pieces nailed both to the bottom of the box and to the post.
The divisions in the box should be not less than six inches square and six or eight inches high. If the box used be square it will probably be an easier job to divide it into four divisions for as many families. Each compartment, of course, must be provided with its separate hole for ingress and egress.
Bird Shelters
Birds do not always seek the shelter of trees in a storm; they will often gather about the house and under barn eaves and piazza sheds, where they are protected from the rain and the drippings from wet leaves. They like a dry shelter, and structures suitable for their needs can be knocked together from very simple material. In the illustration of a bird shelter (Fig. 4), a canvas or heavy muslin roof is supported on two uprights, and under it five perches are arranged from side to side, upon which a great many birds can rest.
The uprights are one and a half by three inches, and the strips forming the Y braces are two inches wide and seven-eighths of an inch thick.
The perches are three-quarter-inch dowels three feet long. If they cannot be had at a carpenter’s shop or a hardware store, some small scantling may be planed nearly round to answer the same purpose. Where the perches are attached to the uprights and Y pieces, holes are bored half-way through the wood. Into these the ends of the perches are driven and nailed fast.
In Fig. 5 the canvas is left off from one side so that the constructional parts of the upright, braces, and roof strips may be seen. When the wood-work is put together the roof should be covered with canvas, heavy unbleached muslin, or a piece of oil-cloth, and tacked all around the edges.
To make the barrel-hoop shelter, shown in Fig. 6, a flat barrel-hoop is loosely covered with canvas or muslin tacked all around the edge. In the top of a post a wooden peg is driven, and over this the middle of the canvas disk is slipped, having first made a hole in the fabric through which the peg can pass. Four wires are attached to the hoop at equal distances apart, and the lower ends caught through staples or screw-eyes driven in the post a foot or two from the top. Two or three holes should be made through the post in which round perches may be driven.
A shelter for the side of a house or barn can be made from a piece of board, two bracket strips, and three dowels or round sticks to act as perches.