Drinking and Bathing-Fountains

Pans for Fountains.-If one has the use of running water, there will be little trouble in providing a constant fresh supply. But simple and effective bird-baths may be made of almost any shallow receptacle, such as large flower-pot saucers, pans of various kinds, wash-boiler covers, etc. Sand and gravel should be placed in these, so as to give a range of depth of water from about a half-inch at the edge to about two in the centre. Or shelving rocks may be placed in the basin; these would render easier the change of water, which should be renewed each day, and would furnish a standing place for the birds which is better than the smooth edge of the pan. These pans may be fastened in the crotch of a tree, or placed on a post or window-sill, high enough to be out of the reach of cats. It is preferable to place it where it will be somewhat shaded to prevent the water from getting too warm.

Dr. Hodge's Fountain. - Dr. Hodge contributes the following description of his very successful and artistic fountain at Worcester. The fountain in the school-yard shown in the illustration is of the same type.

" The bird-fountain is the one great and perennial source of pleasure to ourselves and the birds. It draws all the birds within a radius of several blocks to our garden. Sometimes there will be 30 or 40 of several different species about the fountain, bathing or drinking or awaiting their turns. I have photographs which caught 8 within range of the focus at the same snap. If there was room for but one thing in my yard, it would have to be a bird-fountain. My fountain is constructed of the roughest rocks obtainable, laid up in Portland cement so as to give deep chinks and holes wherever possible for the mosses, lichens, liverworts, sundews, ferns, and all manner of wild flowers on and planted around it; that is, a columnar heap of weathered rocks, held firmly by cement, which either does not show, or is blackened by mixing with lampblack so as to be inconspicuous. It has a bowl, about six inches in diameter and an inch deep, into which the water leaps in a purling stream. This is about four feet from the ground. From this the water falls about a foot into the main bathing-bowl, about eighteen inches in diameter, built up with thin flat stones around the edge of a large flat stone. It is shallow at the edges all around and six inches deep in the centre, but is filled with sand and fine gravel, crushed stone, etc., so as not to be more than four inches deep in the centre. The water falls from this into a still larger pool which partially encircles the base of the fountain, and which is a foot deep in the middle and shallow at the edges. It can contain water-lilies, pitcher-plant, cat-tails, and arrow-wort, and is overhung by gentians and cardinal flower, ferns and iris, jack-in-the-pulpit and blood-root. It can all be arranged to have the music of running water with a very small stream.