Handicrafts. 259 of four pieces of 2x6, each 4% feet long, as in (B). Set another circle 5 feet above this, and a third at the top. Make a door frame for an 18-inch by 4-foot door, and set it in the side selected, at a foot from the ground. Now, sheath this whole structure outside with ordinary sheathing, up and down, nailing to the circles (C, D, and E). Cover the top with a similar roof, seeing that it has a good pitch. Make the roof the size of the highest circle, and let the side sheathing stick up higher than the roof, with uneven outline. Cover the whole of the wall with tar paper, nail on a mason lath up and down every six inches, and cover this again with metal lath and stucco.* The stucco may be made rough to resemble bark, or smooth like an old stub, at your choice. The door should be of sheathing, strongly hinged, swinging in, and covered with stucco like the rest. The roof should be thoroughly waterproofed with paper and tar. The base outside should be banked up with clay. Long cleats nailed to one of the posts inside makes a con- venient ladder to reach the upper floor, which rests on the cross pieces already in, and should, of course, have a man- hole at the top of the ladder. The nesting spaces should be various in size and style. Floor off a space near the roof a foot high, half of the tree’s diameter; and make a 4-inch entrance through the outer cover of the tree, for screech owls. | Make an upright slit, 6 inches x 34-inch for bats. Make some boxes 4x 4, and 12 inches deep. Hang them to the inside of the wall. Give them I-inch, 2-inch, or 3-inch entrance holes outside the trunk. Follow the general instructions for regulation bird boxes, to attract the different species; but hang the boxes inside with the opening out through the tree’s skin. Every one of these nesting boxes should have a 1-inch peep- hole behind, through which you can watch the inhabitants without being seen. A little drop shutter closes this when not in use (F). As a final embellishment, paint the tree with russet and green, and maybe nail on a couple of short thick limbs. Now your work is done; and you surely have opened a new
- Good stucco iy made of 1 part Portland cement, % part hydrated
lime, 7 parts fine building sand.
