74 Bird- Lore A Birds' Bath There is no better way to attract birds about our homes during the summer than to supply them with water for drinking and bathing. The accompanying photograph shows a bath which evidently met with the approval of most of the birds in the vicinitv of my house in the summer antf autumn of 1900, it being patronized even by Screech Owls. It is made of bricks and cement and in cross-section resembles the appended dia- gram : A f Boards may be used to form partitions, which should be filled with earth. The plants introduced were sagittaria, iris, yel- low pond lily, wild rice, duckweed and water hyacinth. The pond is filled with a hose and re- plenished as evaporation requires. — Frank M. Chapman, Englezvood, N . J. Buried Treasure On Feiiruary 10, 1901, I observed a rather amusing incident. IMie snow was nearly a foot deep here on that day and the weather had been quite cold for some time. I was walking through a small piece of woods in search of birds, when I noticed a commotion near an embankment where the snow had drifted to a considerable depth. On drawing near I found a large number of Chickadees, White -breasted Nuthatches and Downy Woodpeckers assembled, the former most in evidence. All the birds seemed much interested in something in the snow, for one after another would fly down, then back into the low trees, in the mean- time keeping up a busy chattering. I went forward to examine the object of their curiosity and found that they had hollowed out a hole in the snow the size of a large bowl. I scraped the snow aside, but could find nothing unusual. My interference was strongly resented by the birds, who raised a great disturbance, several of the Chickadees almost flying in my face in their rage. I was finally obliged to leave without solving the mystery. Just one week later I visited the place again. It had snowed since my former isit, but on reaching the spot I found a much deeper hole and the same flock of birds, reenforced by several Blue Jays and a pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers. This time I made a closer examination and de- tected something yellow at the bottom of the hole which, on being brought to light, was found to be a piece of butter. More scrap- ing revealed more butter, and when all the snow was cleared from the spot it was found that a large round hole had been made in the earth in which had been placed about fifteen pounds of good sweet butter. The stuff had evidently been placed there by thieves, but the birds had detected the plunder, and it was high living for the feathered inhabitants of the woods. I later found that the pair of Red-bellied Wood- peckers had carried about half a pound to a cavity in a large tree, which they were hoarding for future use. — W. O. Doolit- Ti.E. Painesi'ille, Ohio.
