New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All TradesBeard, Daniel Carter
General
New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All Trades
Beard, Daniel Carter
Amusements; Sports
The jug-trough was made by a farm hand, friend of the writer. He made
a hole near the bottom of the jug by first nicking off a piece of the
hard glazed surface with the corner of a hatchet, and then drilling
the hole with a sharpened nail. When the jug was filled with water, a
stopper was put in and it was set in an old dish; the water remained
above the hole in the jug, but rose no higher.
Fig. 42 is an
Old Lard-Can,
with a triangle cut in the edge. Fill the can with water and place a
dish over the top, hold the dish in place, and turn the can upside
down, and the water will fill the dish and keep it filled to the top of
the cut in the can as long as there is water in the can.
Flying-Cage.
By erecting posts at or near the lower end of the bantam-coop and
stretching wire netting from post to post, and thence to pigeon-loft,
a space can be enclosed and roofed over with netting, which will allow
your pigeons room to exercise their wings. This arrangement does not
necessarily use up a foot more ground space.
There are many other simple arrangements which these few will help to
suggest to the reader, and which will add to the comfort and happiness
of his pets.
CHAPTER VI.
HOW TO MAKE A BACK-YARD AVIARY.
It was before the directors of the Brooklyn Institute had met with
success in their silly work of introducing the house-sparrow (known
here as the English sparrow) to this country, and long before these
foreign pests were spread over the length and breadth of the United
States, that the court-house in Covington, Ky., was surmounted by a
wooden image of George Washington.
Bird’s-Nests in Washington’s Coat.
All boys know that Washington loved his country, but few know that he
was a bird-fancier. That the father of our country loved the native
birds is attested by the fact that they built nests in the wooden
wrinkles of his sleeves and in the hollow ends of the roll of parchment
which he held in his hand. His favorite bird was the red-headed
woodpecker. He had it on the brain, and although each year a brood of
little red-headed birds were hatched in his head, the dear old patriot
never made a wry face, but with a benign smile he gazed over the roof
of the livery stable across the street.
Bird’s-Nests in Speaking-Horn.
Upon the same lot with the court-house stood the fire-engine-house,
with its old-fashioned lookout tower. On the top of the tower was a
weather-vane, made of a great fireman’s horn, but the only voices
which ever issued from this old speaking-trumpet were the voices of the
purple martins, singing their bubbling love songs, the twittering of
their mates, or the impatient piping of the young birds inside their
revolving home.
It was in the swinging, moving weather-vane of the engine-house that
these birds each year built their nests and reared their young.
[Illustration: FIGS. 43 to 47.--The Log may be Rounded or Square.]
A Woodpecker’s House.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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