Читать книгу Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys - Joseph H. Adams - Страница 15

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.