Show FIGHT FOR A BIRDHOUSE flycatchers driven ont by bluebird wrens the final victors one spring saida lover of birds there camo to a birdhouse bird honse in my garden a pair of great crested flycatchers I 1 had n doen birdhouses bird houses scattered around this particular one was about a foot square with a peaked roof and a chimney at each end a doorway for tho birds to go in and out and a couple of auger holes bored through the back to give the house light and air this birdhouse tho summer before had been occupied by a pair of bluebirds who had left their nest behind them this nest the great crested flycatchers pulled apart and threw out of the house every twig and straw they cleaned the house out completely and then they brought in everything new and built a nest of their own and settled down comfortably for the summer but in a few days a pair of bluebirds came along and they made for this house it might have been the same identical pair of bluebirds that occupied it the summer before I 1 dont know about that though I 1 have no doubt that robins and other birds that have been south for the winter hundreds of miles away do come back in the spring to the same places and to the same trees anyhow this pair of bluebirds wanted that birdhouse and they ready to fight for it and that is what they did the flycatcher is u nice little bird and a pretty plucky sort of a fighter but not a match for the bluebird they had a grind round up inside the house and finally the bluebirds pitched the flycatchers out and later they pitched out every stick of furniture that the flycatchers had brought in cleaned the house out entirely and then brought in fresh material and built a new nest according to their own ideas and they settled down for the summer well a few days after that a pair of wrens came along and they took a fancy to that particular birdhouse too and they sailed right in and tackled abo bluebirds on tho spot you see the fight from the ground but every now and then you could see a straw or a feather shoot out of the front door of the house the bluebird is a good aund fighter but tho wren is a better one and the upshot was that the wrens fairly put the bluebirds out and took possession of the birdhouse themselves and then the wrens did just what the others had done they pitched out every scrap of stuff in the birdhouse just tumbled it out of the door to fall on the ground and then they brought in new stuff and built a nest for them nobody molested the wrens they staid there and raised their young there and in tho fall they all flew away and left the birdhouse again deserted for the winter new york sun |