Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys. Joseph H. Adams
Fig. 1 a small keg is supported at the top of a post and braced at the bottom with two bracket pieces. A hole two inches and a half in diameter is made at each end of the keg, through which the martins can enter, and the post to which the keg is fastened is cut away at the upper end as shown in Fig. 2.
In one side of the bilge of the keg a hole is cut as large as the post is square or round, and at the other side a corresponding hole is cut the size of the upper part of the post. The keg is then dropped down over the post so that the shoulder, formed by cutting away the wood, will rest under the upper side of the keg, in which the smaller square hole has been cut.
If a round post is employed, the upper part should be cut square so as to prevent the wind from blowing the keg round the post. A cross-stick fastened at the top of the post will form a perch on which the birds may alight.
A box with a peaked roof and three divisions, intended to accommodate three families of the birds, is shown in Fig. 3.
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.
The board should be three feet long and fifteen inches wide. Where it is attached to the house or barn a strip is first attached, and the inner edge of the board is then nailed fast to the strip. The two bracket strips that support the roof at the outer edge should be twenty-four inches long, one inch thick, and two inches wide. Three or four sets of holes are bored in the strips to receive the ends of the dowels or perches.
Pigeon-cotes
For the ordinary pigeons that fly about the house and barn some open cotes are shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, but for the more valuable pigeons a large wire enclosure should be made and the lodges placed within them, unless the birds are very tame and will not leave the premises.
In Fig. 7 A, a cote with three holes is shown that is easily made from thin boards. It should measure thirty inches long, nine inches wide, and twelve inches high at the back, while at the front the board with the holes cut in it should be nine inches wide, with the holes five inches high and four inches wide.
The wood is put together as shown in Fig. 9, and the roof boards overhang the ends and front for an inch or two. The upper ends of the two divisions need not extend beyond the height of the front board, and this open space will insure good ventilation. Sticks an inch square are made fast under the ends of the cote, and on the projecting ends a ledge three inches wide is fastened upon which the pigeons may alight.
The cote shown in Fig. 7 B is made from a shoe-case divided as shown in Fig. 10; on each floor the entrances are alternated from front to sides. Outside each entrance a ledge three inches wide is supported on brackets, and under the pitched roof the ninth compartment is arranged.
The large pigeon-cote (Fig. 8) is a more pretentious affair to make and will tax the young carpenter’s skill. This cote can be made a very attractive pigeon shelter if it is carefully put together and nicely painted.
It is thirty-two inches long, twenty-four high to the eaves or thirty-four to the peak, and twelve inches deep. It is divided as shown in Fig. 11, and the ledges are supported with brackets cut from half-inch wood with a compass saw. From the eaves to the peak the front of the cote may be shingled, and above the peak a perch is erected.
This cote may be attached to the side of a barn or supported on stout uprights embedded securely in the ground.
Dog-kennels
When building a dog-kennel the important features to bear in mind are to make it strong, weather-proof, and large enough for a good-sized dog to turn around in comfortably. A poorly built kennel soon falls apart, and if it is not weather-proof rain will get in on the dog, and dogs do not like to get wet while sleeping any more than boys. Moreover, if the kennel is not large enough it is cramped and stuffy, and, while the dog cannot say so, he resents it, and in his own dog way of reasoning feels that he is imposed upon in being housed in such small quarters. The dimensions of a kennel must be naturally governed by the size of the dog who is to inhabit it; but for one of medium size, such as a setter or collie, a kennel with a peaked roof, similar to the one shown in Fig. 12, should be three feet long, two feet wide, two feet high at the sides, and three feet high from the ground to the peak or ridge-pole.
The floor frame is the first thing in constructing a kennel, and it should be made of two by three inch spruce, thirty-four inches long and twenty-two inches wide, with lap joints at the corners as shown in Fig. 13. On this the flooring of tongue and grooved boards is laid and nailed down.
From three matched boards eight inches wide make the front and back to the kennel as shown in Fig. 14. The lower ends of the boards are nailed to the floor frame, and where they are sawed off to form the peak a batten is placed at the inside and made fast with clinch nails driven into it from the outside through the boards.
The nail heads in the front of Fig. 14 will show the location of one batten, and the other can clearly be seen at the inside of the back, where the clinched nail ends are shown.
Beginning