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336 Woodcraft Manual for Girls purple martin, as well as with the English sparrow if they are set up in town. Alexander Wilson tells us that the Choctaw and Chicasaw Indians used to make bird houses for the purple martins thus: "Cut off all top branches from a sapling, near their cabins, leav- ing the prongs a foot or two in length, on each of which they hang a gourd, or calabash properly hollowed out for their conveni- ence." But the wild-wood box or hollow limb is more sightly and for some birds more attractive. There are several ways of using the natural limb. One is, take a seven or eight inch stick of chestnut about twenty inches long, split four slabs off it (o),then saw off three inches of each end of the "core" and nail the whole thing together again (p and q), omitting the middle part of the core. Another way is to split the log in half and scoop out the interior of each half (1 and m). When nailed together again it makes a commodious chamber, about five inches wide and a foot or more deep. nother plan is: Take a five-inch limb of green chestnut, t.. ■ , or any other tough-barked tree. Cut a piece eighteen inches long, make a long bevel on one end (e). Now carefully spUt the bark on one side and peel it. Then saw the peeled wood into three pieces (f g h), leave out g and put the bark on again. Cut a hole in the bark on the longest side, at the place farthest from the beveled end (x in e), and your bird nest is finished. The beveled end is there to make it easily nailed up; when in place, it is as at (i). The front— that fa, the ade where the door is— should always be the vaxd&c one; and the door in each case should be near the top. But these methods presuppose a fine big stick of wood. I have more often found it convenient to work with scraps. Here is one easy way that I have long used: From a four or five inch round log saw off two sections each two inches thick, or failing a log, cut out two circles from a two-inch plank, for »op and ^ttom parts (like f and h) ; then using six or seven laths instead of bark, make a hollow cylinder (j). Cover the hollow cylinder with a large piece of bark and cut the hole (k). Cut your entry at the top, half on each of a pair of laths. Cover the whole thing with bark nailed neatly on • or failing the bark, cover it with canvas and paint a dull green mottled with black and gray. This last has the advantage of giving most room in a small log. Of course, if tme can find a hollow Umb, all this work is