 Chapter 5 of Wild Bird Guests by Ernest Baines. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Economic reasons for protecting the birds. If the farmers once realized what powerful friends they have in the wild birds, they will be the best bird protectors on earth. They will band together and see to it that no one is allowed to cut down their incomes by destroying the most valuable allies they have in their fight against their enemies, the weeds, the harmful insects, and the harmful rodents. The Department of Agriculture at Washington, after a careful study of the question, tells us that the annual loss to the farmers of this country from the attacks of insect and rodent pests alone is about a billion dollars. This means a loss of about a dollar a month for every man, woman, and child in the United States. The loss, occasioned by the enormous amount of labor required to battle with even partial success against the weeds, which everywhere threaten the crops, is also very great. But the farmer's loss is by no means his alone. We must all share it, whether we wish to or not, for we all eat what the farmer grows and whatever loss he sustains by having a part of his crops destroyed, whether it be by drought or insects, by floods or wild mice, by storm or choking weeds. We must share by paying higher prices for what is left. So we should all be very much interested when the Department of Agriculture goes on to tell us that birds constitute the principal check, upon the weeds and insects and rodents, which cause this tremendous loss every year. And we may accept the statements of the Department of Agriculture on this subject with absolute confidence, because they are not the result of guesswork or of prejudice, but the result of careful investigation on the part of scientific men who are giving their lives, not to prove that birds are either beneficial or the reverse, but to learn the truth about birds, whatever that may be. For example, if Dr. A.K. Fisher tells us that at least 75% of the food of the short-eared owl consists of mice, we can be as sure of it as that 75% of a dollar is 75 cents. You may be certain that Dr. Fisher has taken nothing for granted. He has examined hundreds of owl pellets and the stomachs of hundreds of owls from all parts of the country and at all seasons of the year and has reserved his opinion until he is sure that no further evidence will cause it to be reversed. When Mr. F.E.L. Beale states that 53% of the rusty black bird's food consists of animal food, chiefly noxious in sex, he is not guessing either. He shows you a table which he has prepared after the careful examination of the stomachs of many black birds. There you can see at a glance what kinds of food and the proportions of each which the birds eat during every season of the year. And you can see also that bad deeds are recorded as carefully as good ones and that when practically nothing but grain is eaten, the table shows it. And when Dr. Sylvester D. Judd expresses an opinion on the food of sparrows, he has based that opinion on the contents of the stomachs of between 4,000 and 5,000 sparrows. And so if he tells us as he does that during the colder half of the year the seeds of smart weed, bird weed, pigeon grass, pigweed, lambs, quarters, ragweed, crab grass, and other seeds form for fists of the food of sparrows, we may accept the statement as a fact. Of course, I am aware that the subject of the economic value of birds when taken up in detail is very complex and that the questions involved are not always easy to answer. Some birds like the yellow-bellied sap sucker, which is said to damage most of the extent of $2,250,000 annually. And the sharp shin and cooper's hawks, which live almost exclusively on poultry and useful wild birds are easy to place in the destructive class. Others like our cuckoos, which feed on destructive hairy caterpillars and other noxious creatures and tree sparrows, which divert themselves chiefly to the gathering of weed seeds are as easy to place in the beneficial class. But in between we have many birds not so easy to place. For example, the bobble ink, which is beneficial in the north where it feeds mainly on insects, is very destructive in the south where it works havoc in the rice fields. The great horned owl is very useful in the west, where agriculture is the chief occupation and where the bird destroys vast numbers of gophers, ground squirrels and other pests, but in the east where the population is denser and where there is more poultry raising, this owl sometimes gets himself very much disliked by killing hens and turkeys. Sometimes birds whose value may not be very apparent under normal conditions come to the front at the time of a plague of insects or rodents and perform invaluable service. For instance, when the Mormons first settled Utah, they were threatened with ruin by the millions of black crickets which came down upon their grain fields and swept them as clean as though they had been burned with fire. The first year's crop was thus destroyed. With characteristic courage, next year the Mormons sowed their seed again, but no sooner did the crops give promise of a bountiful yield when again came the black crickets bringing dismay to the settlers. But just at this juncture a wonderful thing happened. Suddenly and seemingly from nowhere in particular came a great avenging army. Hundreds and thousands of Franklin Gauls poured themselves into the grain fields and annihilated those black crickets until there wasn't so much as a chirp left. It looked like a miracle from heaven and the settlers thought it was and the grateful Mormons did not forget. The Gauls have been protected ever since, both by law and sentiment and recently a suitable monument was erected in Salt Lake City in recognition of their services. Certain otherwise beneficial birds complicate matters by devouring predatious beetles, ick Newman flies and others which are themselves useful because they destroy harmful insects. But then again these predatious insects destroy some useful insects complicating the matter still further and making it extremely difficult to determine the exact economic value of the birds. However, where pains have been taken to work out the interrelations of birds and predatious insects the evidence obtained seems to be chiefly in favor of the birds and at least until a more exhaustive study of the interrelations results indefinitely establishing their economic status we should give such birds the benefit of the doubt. As this book is not primarily a work on the value of birds that subject cannot be dealt with exhaustively here but I will try to present to the reader just enough evidence to leave in his mind no doubt that birds as a class are not only useful but very useful and that it is well worth our while even from a selfish standpoint to protect them and to insist upon their protection by others. We are often surprised to find that birds which we had regarded simply as beautiful or poetic are very useful as well as we have seen in the case of the plague of crickets which threaten to ruin the Mormons Gauls can do more than add to the beauty of a landscape given their protection they deserve they become valuable allies of the farmers coming with turns and other birds to be a scourge to the locusts and other insects which lessen the profits of farming 84 locusts have been found in the stomach of a single turn Seagulls also act as scavengers cleansing the waters of our harbors and river mouths of awful and other refuse which threaten to pollute them and they are not the least of the many agencies which make fertile and habitable what would otherwise be rocky or sandy barren and uninhabitable islands their rotting nests make soil they fertilize it with their guana and plant in it seeds which they have carried from afar and which have passed unharmed through their digestive tracts doubtless many shipwrecked sailor life to the unconscious work of seabirds and as Forbush points out they often save the mariner from shipwreck especially in foggy summer weather at such times the presence or the clamorous voices of seabirds in great numbers often give warning of the presence of the rocks or islands where they make their homes and offshore fishermen receive similar warning from the unerring flight of homeward bound gulls and terns Chapman goes so far as to say that Columbus facing a discouraged and mutinous crew might never have discovered America had not the fall flight of land birds passing from the Bermudas to the Bahamas and until he's been observed by the mariners who were given new courage by the unwirried and joyous songsters which alighted in the rigging the course of the vessel was changed the flying birds were made the pilots and the voyage was thus shortened by 200 miles and land discovered few of us I think would look to the great dignified slow-moving fish eating white pelicans to help us much in solving our insect problem yet at times they devour great numbers of locusts the ducks geese and swans are of value to us not so much for what they do as for what they are most of them are excellent for food and if we gave them reasonable protection instead of permitting them to be slaughtered racefully they would make a wonderful and perpetual addition to our national food supply under present conditions of comparatively few people get most of them and they are growing fewer and fewer in numbers spoonbills, ibises, storks, herons and cranes are all more or less useful as destroyers of insects and at times such as when insect plagues threaten the crops in certain regions the services of such birds may prove the salvation of the farmers an example of such service was given some years ago in Australia when the sheep industry near Ballarat was seriously threatened by a swarm of locusts which was devouring the pasture just as the sheep owners began to feel that they would be obliged to sell all their sheep to save them from starvation down came flocks of spoonbills and cranes which with the assistance of a flock of starlings soon completed the destruction of the locusts and saved the day herons of course when conditions are favorable for them destroy a good many fish but these birds are so picturesque save in very exceptional cases it will do us good to make some sacrifice to have them with us a stately heron fishing on the edge of a lonely pool is a pleasant memory to be cherished through life a dead one upholstered and set up in a living room is a perpetual reproach many of the sandpipers and curlews are famous as destroyers of insects and the smaller ones at least should be spared on this account Professor Samuel Augie whose extensive and painstaking investigations have done so much to make us appreciate the value of Nebraska birds once took from the stomachs of six spotted sandpipers 233 insects 91 of which were locusts the farmer lost a valuable friend when the Eskimo Curlew disappeared and he will lose another and plover passes as it will unless given powerful protection by law and sentiment this bird is used for food but is infinitely more valuable alive than dead it lives very largely on locusts and when these are numerous they are eaten almost exclusively quail and grouse are valuable both as food and as destroyers of insects and weed seeds the former at least are more valuable alive than dead they are wonderful destroyers of potato bugs and if encouraged to nest in the fields and fence corners no Paris green need be used on the potato crops on locusts they work just as well Professor Augie found in the stomachs of 21 quail 539 of these insects an average of 25 apiece and that only a part of one day's work these birds also eat large numbers of chinch, bugs, cotton worms, cotton bowl weevils cucumber beetles, may beetles, leaf beetles, clover leaf beetles corn hill bugs, wire worms, cut worms and splice and many other insect pests and being birds of good size they require large quantities of such food as destroyers of weed seed they stand as high if not higher forebush states that they eat the seeds of over 60 different kinds of weeds those of ragweed seeming to be the favorite the same authority tells us that as many as two to three hundred seeds of smart weed 500 of the red soil 700 of the three seeded mercury and 1000 of the ragweed have been eaten at a meal Dr. Jed gives even stronger testimony in favor of these birds when he tells us that 5,000 seeds of green foxtail and 10,000 of pigweed have been found in a single bird he estimates that from June 1st to August 1st in the two states of Virginia and North Carolina alone bob whites each 1,341 tons of weed seed and 340 tons of insects when to all this is added the aesthetic value of this gentle bird whose cheery voice thrills all to whom it is familiar we see that to kill a quail and serve it on toast is to realize but a very small part of what it is really worth the morning dove which we see everywhere through the middle west in which all day long rises in little flocks as our train passes through the fields rivals even the bob white as a destroyer of weed seeds Professor King in Wisconsin took from the stomach of a single dove 4,016 seeds of pigeon grass and from the stomach of another were taken 7,500 seeds of oxalis I confess that I have little patience with the man who tries to tell the farmer that all hawks and owls are his friends and that he should not shoot one under any circumstances he should know better than this and the farmer does know better such sweeping statements not only failed to convince the intelligent farmer but they tend to make him discredit the truth concerning the birds of prey Dr. A.K. Fisher, America's greatest authority on our hawks and owls devised them into four classes as follows one species wholly beneficial rough-legged hawk, beareruginous roughleg or squirrel hawk and the four kites the white-tailed kite, Mississippi kite swallow-tailed kite and Everglade kite two species chiefly beneficial most of our hawks and owls including marsh hawk, harris hawk red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawk short-tailed hawk, white-tailed hawk Swainson hawk, short-winged hawk, broad-winged hawk Mexican black hawk, Mexican ghost hawk sparrow hawk, autobahn, cara cara barn owl, long-eared owl, short-eared owl great gray owl, barred owl, western owl, Richardson owl Akkadian owl, screech owl, flammulated screech owl snowy owl, hawk owl, burrowing owl, pygmy owl veruginous pygmy owl and elf owl three species in which beneficial and harmful qualities about balance golden eagle, bald eagle, pigeon hawk Richardson hawk, a plamato falcon, prairie falcon and great horned owl four species which are harmful the gyre falcons, duck hawk, sharp shind hawk cooper hawk and ghost hawk to the average farmer the most surprising thing about the above lists will be the very small number of species which are positively harmful and for the farmer in the United States this list grows beautifully smaller when we take from it the gyre falcons which are northern species which seldom enter this country when we remember that the duck hawk is uncommon except in the vicinity of large bodies of water and that his operations are conducted chiefly against waterfowl and that even the ghost hawk one of the most destructive of birds is rare south of the Canadian border except in the fall and winter this leaves us with two harmful hawks cooper's and the sharp shind hawk and as I have already in the chapter on the natural enemies of birds spoken of the misdeeds of these two it will not be necessary to say any more about them naturally it is not possible here to go into details concerning the feeding habits of a large number of birds of prey but I will try by giving a few examples to show why these birds as a class are beneficial and why therefore most of them should be protected first in order come the vultures which are almost wholly beneficial the turkey buzzard and the black vulture of our southern states render valuable service as scavengers flying at great heights and endowed with wonderful powers of vision they quickly find and devour carcasses and other decaying animal matter and thus prevent it from becoming a menace to health the hawks come next and I will begin with the red-tailed hawk whose appearance in any locality is almost sure to attract the attention of the farmer and which is among the birds most frequently shot for a chicken hawk as the range of this bird covers the whole United States if chickens constituted any large proportion of its food it would surely be a great enemy of the poultry keeper fortunately however its principle food consists of mice with a fair proportion of shrews, rats, corals, gophers, rabbits, grasshoppers, beetles, frogs, snakes and crayfish poultry is occasionally taken and a few birds are on the list but the great good which this hawk does by destroying rodent pests pays many times over for the occasional chicken or songbird taken when perhaps the mouse hunting is poor how far the good deeds of this hawk outweigh its bad ones may be seen when we learn from Dr. Fisher that out of 562 stomachs examined, 54 contained poultry or game birds, 51 other birds, 278 mice 131 other rodents, 37 frogs, toads and snakes 47 insects, 8 crayfish, 1 centipede, 13 awful and 89 were empty the red-shouldered hawk, another large species which is a bird of eastern North America only is even more beneficial in proportion to the size of its range though it is continually persecuted as a poultry thief as a matter of fact it hardly ever touches poultry and most of the very few wild birds which it kills are possibly sick or decrepit ones on the other hand this spender bird wages an unceasing warfare on mice and many kinds of injurious insects and the balance of its food consists chiefly of frogs, toads and snakes though I have on several occasions closely observed red-shouldered hawks from the time their eggs were hatched until the young flew away I've never seen one carry a chicken or in fact a bird of any kind to its young and once we are two of these hawks in a poultry yard actually confining them with the poultry for two months and though they were not overfed they never in a single instance even showed an inclination to molest the poultry perhaps the most beneficial of all is the marsh hawk because it is not only a useful bird but also has a very wide range being found in practically all parts of the United States and Canada the name would imply it is a bird of the open country and it makes its nest on the ground in the marshes flying low and with slow beating wings this large bird tacks tirelessly back and forth over the country sweeping the ground with its keen eyes for the mice and other small rodents which form the principal part of its food Dr. Fisher tells us that of 124 stomachs examined 7 contained poultry or game birds 34 other birds 57 mice 22 other rodents 7 reptiles 2 frogs 14 insects 1 indeterminate matter and 8 were empty in some of these stomachs there were as many as 4, 5 and even 8 meadow mice and when we consider the extreme rapidity with which birds digest their food we realize that these stomach contents do not begin to represent the entire work of the day on which they were shot and again when we consider that marsh hawks rear from 4 to 6 young and that these remain in the nest for several weeks that young hawks are proverbially ravenous and that during the latter part of their stay in the nest they eat even more than adult birds we begin to get some faint idea of the number of mice and insects which their parents must destroy each day in order to provide food for the entire family as 8 meadow mice have been found in the stomach of a single marsh hawk and as this probably represented but a part of the day's food supply it would not be unreasonable to suppose that each marsh hawk destroyed at least 8 mice or their equivalent in other harmful creatures every day to supply its own needs but in order to be well within bounds let us cut this number in 2 and suppose that each hawk kills but 4 meadow mice each day a number probably quite insufficient to keep such a large active bird in good condition this would mean that a pair of these hawks would destroy 8 mice in a day or 2,920 mice in a year it has been estimated that each meadow mouse on a farm causes an annual loss to the farmer of at least 2 cents by destroying grass fruits, tubers, grain and young fruit trees a very conservative estimate it would seem the destruction of 2,920 mice then would save the farmer $58.40 in other words it puts into his pocket $58.40 which but for the hawks would have been eaten up by mice now it is an exceptionally good cow which gives an annual return as large as that and a farmer owning such a cow would be very careful not to shoot her by mistake for some harmful animal yet that same farmer will without a moment's hesitation shoot these valuable hawks because hawks of an entirely different species have at some time carried off his chickens owls as a class are even more beneficial than the hawks they constitute what might be termed the night shift of the pest killing forces coming on about dusk and continuing their work until dawn when the hawks again take up the good work having very acute hearing and also wonderful powers of vision which are in most species keenest in the dusk they are able to capture many nocturnal animals which are passed over by the hawks mice and rats, moles and shrews, rabbits squirrels, gophers and prairie dogs besides many kinds of injurious insects constitute the principal food of our owls as Dr. Fisher has pointed out there are some owls which are not wholly beneficial and beneficial certain species when opportunity offers are destructive to poultry there is this to be said however that if poultry is properly housed at night there is little to fear from owls the barn owl, chiefly a southern species is one of the most useful of all birds it lives almost exclusively on small mammals principally destructive ones Fisher says that in the south Atlantic states it feeds extensively on the cotton rat and that the common rat also is greedily devoured he once examined 200 pellets taken from the nesting site of a pair of these owls in one of the towers of the Smithsonian Institution in these pellets he found 454 skulls of which 225 were those of meadow mice two of pine mice, 179 of house mice 20 of rats, 6 of jumping mice 20 of shrews, one of a star nose mole and one of a best spurs sparrow in the retreat of another pair of these birds were found more than 3,000 skulls 97% of which were those of mammals chiefly field mice, house mice and common rats and all this spender work was done without the cost of one penny to anyone best known perhaps of all our nocturnal birds of prey is the little screech owl a bird whose range covers the hole of the United States in the southern portions of Canada the farmer who kills this useful little bird or permits anyone else on his farm to kill it is woefully negligent of his own interests during the day there is no sign of its presence but at dusk it suddenly appears in the entrance of its hiding place a hollow apple tree or a hole in some outbuilding perhaps without the slightest sound it passes into the air silent as a puff of smoke it drifts through the orchard over the barnyard and around the corn ricks with bright eyes wide open and sharp talons ready to snuff out the lives of the thieving mice or rats this little fellow may often be induced to take up his residence on a given farm if a suitable nest box is put up for him in the orchard there are several such nest boxes in this village and I know of at least two which are occupied by screech owls one of them is on an apple tree in my own orchard and when I found the owl I found in the box beside him half a very large black rat and several pellets containing the bones and fur of meadow mice if space permitted we might go on through the whole long list and continue to prove by indisputable evidence that most hawks and owls are of great value to the men to whom the presence of rats and mice and gophers and other rodents means a money loss but even from the above facts I think it will be seen that in most birds of prey the farmer has powerful allies who should be encouraged in every way possible and made to feel that they are never so safe as when they are on the farm the cuckoos of which we have two species the blackbilled and the yellowbilled are among our most valuable destroyers of insects they make a specialty of hairy caterpillars and are among the best cheques upon the destructive tent caterpillar weed and deer borne point out that they are unique in that they have a taste for stink bugs hairy caterpillars and poisonous spiny larvae which most other birds reject they are among the most persistent enemies of the caterpillars of the brown tail and gypsy moths and are said to kill many more than they can eat Professor Beale states that from the stomachs of 121 cuckoos were taken 2771 caterpillars and Dr. Otto Lugger found several hundred small ones in the stomach of a single bird a cuckoo shot in Washington some years ago was found to have eaten 250 half grown web worms one large ceramic bicep beetle and its eggs one large plant bug and a snail most woodpeckers are highly beneficial spending their lives chiefly in the destruction of insects which if they were not kept in check would quickly kill the trees which they infest some species like the ivory built and palliated woodpeckers spend most of their time in the deep solitary woods others like the hairy and downing divide their time between the woodland the shade trees and orchards while one the flicker lives much of his life in the open and gets a large part of his food on the ground while fruits and berries are eaten more or less by most woodpeckers but their principal food is insects here again we must confine ourselves to a few examples the downy woodpecker which has a wide range and which is known to all of us is one of the most useful members of this useful family we need only watch him for a while as he works in our fruit and shade trees to realize this but as some of us haven't the time to prove it for ourselves it is well to know that specialists have already proved it for us from the contents of 140 stomachs examined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture it is shown that three-fourths of the downy's food consists of insects 17 specimens examined in Wisconsin were found to have eaten 40 insect larvae including 20 wood-boring grubs three caterpillars, seven ants, four beetles one chrysalid, 110 small bugs and a spider also a few acorns and small seeds and a little woody fiber which had probably been taken in accidentally with the food Fanny Hardy X-Storm in her charming little book the woodpeckers says of him downy works at his self-appointed task in our orchard summer and winter as regular as a policeman on his beat but he is much better than a policeman for he acts as judge, jury, jailer and jail all the evidence he asks against an insect is to find him loafing about the premises the hairy woodpecker is simply a larger addition of the downy and his feeding habits are similar most of his food consists of insects and four specimens examined by Professor Augie in Nebraska contained 157 grasshoppers Night hawks and whipper-wheels are policemen of the air and are especially useful in that they are working in the dusk and at night and most other birds are off duty the amount of good work they do is almost unbelievable in Arkansas Night Hawk whose stomach was examined had captured 600 insects Nats, beetle-splies and grasshoppers are also eaten by Night Hawks and seven Nebraska specimens were found to have gathered in 348 Rocky Mountain Locusts Swifts also capture most of their insect food while on the wing and they are apt to be found on duty at any hour of the day or night they should be encouraged to nest in the chimneys wherever they will flycatchers do catch most of their prey on the wing but unlike the Swifts and Night Hawks they do not go far afield to hunt for it upon some dead tree top a telegraph pole the cable of a barn or similar vantage point they stand quiet but very watchful until some luckless insect comes within range of their vision a swift dive out into space the click of a bill and the sentinel returns to his post with the insect inside perhaps no flycatchers better known or better loved than our common Phoebe whose return in the spring is a pretty sure sign of mild weather or at least the approach of it 93% of this bird's food consists of insects and the remainder of wild fruit it rears two broods of young each year and as there are often five birds to each brood the amount of food consumed is very great there is always a nest under the roof of our piazza and we should miss the birds in more ways than one if they did not come in the first place we should miss their cheery companionship we should also miss our customary freedom from annoyance by flies and mosquitoes for which we are indebted to the Phoebe's and a few other birds and it should be remembered that birds which destroy house flies probably destroy the typhoid germs they may be carrying and that birds which destroy mosquitoes may be freeing us from the dangers of malaria I'm inclined to think that birds have not yet received the credit to do them as preventors of disease the king bird has still another claim upon us this handsome fly catcher is one of the best of all guardians of the poultry yard if a pair of king birds make their nest on some pear or apple tree in the orchard or chicken yard will to the hawk or crow that attempts to steal the chickens long before he gets near the king birds will fly out and attack him and like his not will make the feathers fly from his back before he can escape besides 90% of the king bird's food consists of insects he has been accused of eating honey bees but that he does so to any great extent has not been proven in 241 stomachs examined there were found 40 drones four workers in six whose sex could not be determined the killing of the drones was beneficial and the small loss entailed by the killing of four workers was more than made up for it by the destruction of 19 robber flies which were also found in these stomachs crows and blue jays seem to be on the fence they both do great good at certain times and in certain places and great damage at other times and places both of them stand rather high as destroyers of insects and both have bad reputations as robbers of birds nest in his government bulletin on the common crow of the United States Professor Walter B. Barrows sums up his subjects case as follows one crows seriously damaged the corn crop and injure other grain crops usually to a less extent two they damage other farm crops to some extent frequently doing much mischief three they are very destructive to the eggs and young of domesticated fowls four they do incalculable damage to the eggs and young of native birds five they do much harm by the distribution of the seeds of poison ivy, poison sumac and perhaps other noxious plants six they do much harm by the destruction of beneficial insects on the other hand one they do much good by the destruction of injurious insects two they are largely beneficial through their destruction of mice and other rodents three they are valuable occasionally as scavengers in conclusion he says it seems probable that in most places the crow is neither so harmful nor so valuable as to render special laws necessary for its destruction or protection these last remarks probably apply equally well to the blue jay who though a notorious robber of nests is useful as a destroyer of larvae of brown tail and gypsy moths the eggs of the tent caterpillar moth besides beetles and grasshoppers neither crows nor blue jays should be exterminated but they should be watched and where they become too numerous or too bold and seriously interfere with other wild birds or with poultry measures should be taken to thin them out birds belonging to what we might call the blackbird family which includes the bobblinks, meadowlarks, orioles, blackbirds, grackles and cowbirds are nearly all more beneficial than harmful but there is a great difference in the amount of good done by the different members of this family the meadowlark is one of the most useful in the eastern states it does very little harm even in the spring when the corn is sprouting and summer it fees almost exclusively on insects, chiefly noxious ones and in the fall it is useful as a destroyer of weed seeds Professor Harold Child Bryant of the University of California in his funded work on the economic status of the western meadowlark shows how valuable the bird is to the California farmer in spite of the fact that it does some damage by pulling grain during two weeks in the spring, a damage which might be prevented he suggests by planting the grain somewhat deeper or by a little over planting Professor Bryant gives ten good reasons why the meadowlark should be protected and among them is the fact that it is probably unequaled as a destroyer of cutworms caterpillars and grasshoppers, three of the worst insect plagues in the state of California taking the other extreme, the bobblink probably does much more harm than good if we judge him solely from an economic standpoint it is hard for people of the north where the bird is so well-beloved for aesthetic reasons to hear him condemned but the fact remains that his depredations in the rice fields of the south are often very serious in the fall the bobblinks gather in flocks of millions which move like armies upon the rice crops which they would destroy in two or three days if they were not continually being driven off by birdminders who patrol the fields and slaughter the birds by shooting them sparrows and finches based their chief claim to usefulness upon the fact that they are as a family the greatest destroyers of the seeds of noxious weeds they help to keep down perhaps 50 or 60 kinds of injurious plants and the amount of good they accomplish in the course of the year is hard to believe many of them like the junkos, tree sparrows and snow buntings work in flocks and before them such seeds as ragweed, pigweed, smart-weeding crabgrass fairly melt away from the ground it is not an uncommon thing to find from 300 to 500 seeds in the stomach of a single sparrow and these represent but a part of the day's work Professor F. E. L. Biel some time ago made a very careful and conservative estimate of the number of tree sparrows which spent the winter in the state of Iowa judging from the stomach contents of many tree sparrows examined by him he allowed a quarter of an ounce of weed seed a day for each bird and on this basis calculated that in that one state the tree sparrows destroyed 1,750,000 pounds or about 875 tons of weed seed during each winter supposing that those seeds have been left on the ground and that one in a hundred had germinated I wonder what it would have cost the farmer to grub them out our seven species of swallows may be counted among the birds which are almost wholly beneficial they do no harm in any way beyond eating a few useful parasitic insects and combing the air from morning to night they destroy an almost unbelievable number of noxious flying things including house flies, mosquitoes, gnats and horse flies as most of them are quick to accept the hospitality of man they are among the most useful birds we can have around our homes and barns but they are valuable in fields as well since they gather in locusts leaf hoppers and wasps and bugs the purple martin the largest of the family is very fond of squash beetles the stomachs of 10 purple martins shot in Nebraska were found to contain 265 locusts and 161 other insects when we see shrikes attacking our favorite chickadees and other little friends in winter it is hard for us to regard them as useful birds yet Dr. Judd who has closely studied their feeding habits tells us that in the main these habits are good it appears that one fourth of their food consists of mice one fourth of grasshoppers one fourth of English sparrows and noxious insects and only one fourth of small native birds useful beetles and spiders quite different is the important service rendered by a host of small birds whose duty it seems to be to protect the trees and shrubs among which they spend the greater part of their lives here we have the verios, warblers, wrens, nuthatches, titmice and kinglets all energetic and persistent hunters of small game which if allowed to increase uncheck would quickly destroy our forests and set it off the best work of the fruit grower the verios many of the warblers some of the wrens and the titmice work chiefly among the small twigs the leaves and blossoms of the trees and they are well hidden insects, insect eggs or cocoons which escape the sharp little eyes made on purpose to spy them and the sharper beaks so well fitted for probing the crannies where they lurk who can help admiring the work of a chickadee when he undertakes to inspect a particular twig he goes at it as if he knew his business and took a pride in doing it right he studies his subject from every point of view from above from both sides and from below thinking nothing of swinging upside down if this position affords him a better view of any particular spot and woe to the pests which may be hiding from him canker worm eggs here a small caterpillar there and a bark beetle behind that twig and the chickadee goes back and forth up and down and round and round meanwhile chatting gaily to a dozen fellas all working on different twigs until that little job is finished and he passes on to the next one Professor E.D. Sanderson who has carefully studied the chickadee in Michigan estimates that this bird destroys every year and that one state about 8,000 million insects certain warblers and not hatches and brown creepers divert themselves chiefly to the insects which infest the bark of the trees and gather in many which the woodpeckers have passed by mockingbirds, thrashers, catbirds, thrushes, robins and bluebirds should not be required to give evidence of their material usefulness in order to ensure our protection almost all of them are world famous as musicians and their cheerful presence alone has one for them the love of every American capable of the finer feelings nevertheless many of them are very useful as well the bluebird universal favorite has a splendid record as a destroyer of injurious insects Professor Forbes in summing up his evidence for this bird remarks 100 bluebirds at 30 insects a day we eat in 8 months about 670,000 insects if this number of birds were destroyed the result would be the preservation on the area supervised by them of about 70,000 moths and caterpillars many of them cut worms, 20,000 leaf hoppers 10,000 curculeos and 65,000 crickets locusts and grass hoppers how this rightful hoard of marauders would busy itself if left undisturbed no one can doubt he would eat grass and clover and corn and cabbage inflicting immense injury itself and leaving a progeny which would multiply that injury indefinitely the robin is charged with eating right fruit and there is no doubt whatever that in many cases the charge is true at times owners of small fruit farms suffer severe losses from the attacks of this bird though the investigations of Professor Beale have shown to show that where wild fruit is abundant it is preferred to the cultivated varieties in any case the good work accomplished by the robin in destroying insects especially when there are hungry nestlings to be fed much more than offsets the damage done in individual cases the cat bird must also plead guilty to the charge of fruit eating for he is notoriously fond of the smaller kinds but as a check upon insect pests he more than pays his bills as he feeds his young almost exclusively on insects and as he rears to and often three brews in a season the service rendered is considerable the stomachs of three nestling cat birds examined by Dr. Clarence Moore's weed contained 95% of insect food 62% of this food was composed of cutworms practically all the thrushes eat a good deal of fruit but most of it is wild fruit that has little or no value to man on the other hand nearly two-thirds of their food consists of insects, chiefly injurious ones so making all allowances for a number of birds whose good deeds are offset by bad ones and for a few which are positively harmful we shall see that we have working for us a great army of feathered workmen workmen many of whom work for us 365 days in a year without wages and without even the necessity for supervision and when we think that these workmen never loaf never ask for a vacation and never go on strike it would seem that there should be among all intelligent people the keenest competition for their services in later chapters I show some of the ways in which these workmen may be induced to spend at least a part of the year in our fields and orchards and gardens where they will surely lay the foundations of a permanent friendship which shall be at once a source of pleasure and profit to us and of protection to themselves End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of Wild Bird Guests by Ernest Baines This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Aesthetic and moral reasons for protecting the birds We have seen how valuable the birds are to us as guardians of our trees and crops and we realize that we should protect them for our own interests because they ensure us heavier yields and more money To do this will show our wisdom and far-sightedness it will show our interest in birds but it will not necessarily show our love for them for love does not traffic in a marketplace nor use a huckster's scales Valuable as birds are as checks upon our enemies the weeds, the insects and the rodents there are higher reasons for protecting them Looking at the matter from an aesthetic point of view there are tens of thousands of people and I number the reader and myself among them who would find the world a much harder place to live in if it were not for the birds Our happiness is made up largely of pleasant sights and sounds and thoughts and there would be far less of all of these if there were no birds we should be deprived of the sight of their wonderful forms and colors and movements how much a flock of seagulls wheeling and turning and flashing sunlight from their silver pinions above the deep blue water of a bay or harbor mouth adds to the beauty of the scene what an air of cheerfulness a flock of pine grossbeaks or junkos or a brave band of friendly chickadees to a leaven winter landscape how much of spring there is on the back of a blue bird that fluttering fragment dropped from the blue vault of heaven no woods are dreary if the jays or crows are calling no field but is full of joy if the bobble links are sprinkling it with their song and he is not quite human whose heart does not beat faster when at night and far above him he hears the cry of the wild gander as he leads his flying squadrons northward homeward through the pathways of the skies to a lever of nature it seems there is no time or place that the presence of living native birds does not add to one's happiness in camp on a New England mountaintop in the cool daybreak of a summer morning the wonders of the coming sunrise are heralded by the voices of the hermit thrushes rising in chorus from the dawn lighted spruce spires below the loneliness of the marsh at noon day vanishes as a stately heron flaps across the stagnant water and silently joins our vigil in the afternoon among the flower beds the soft purr of a hummingbird's motor causes us to smile as we realize that we are not alone in the garden in the dusk of evening the call of the soft-voiced invisible whipper-will adds charming mystery to the gathering shatters of the roadside and the glories of our winter night in the big woods are not complete without the deep-toned hooting of an owl to speak of the majesty of solitude by the wonderful and delightful feeling of companionship which they create birds lures into the open away from the cities into the woods and fields and beside the rivers and the ocean beach where the air and sunlight are pure and full of health and life and perhaps after all this is just as important as keeping the beetles out of the potato patch so it would seem that all but particularly stupid or particularly thoughtless persons must be interested in birds entirely apart from their economic value and to many they are the source of the greatest joy in light even primitive peoples have been deeply impressed by the remarkable forms and colors of birds by their tranquil songs, their thrilling cries and their weird calls and by their seemingly mysterious gatherings and disappearances and reappearances it is hardly strange that these wonderful creatures so different from all other forms of life yet so human in many of their attributes which have mastered the air and went at will through paths where none could follow should exert a powerful influence on the minds of people seeking to solve without the aid of science the mysteries of nature so birds came to be invested with supernatural powers some for good and some for evil they became the subjects of story and legend and in this way interwoven with ancient folklore and symbolism in Percy Mackay's famous bird mask sanctuary ornest the spirit of all birds in her appeal to stark the plume hunter says do you not know me? I am she whom first beneath the dark ancestral tree you rose upon your feet to harken to by me you grew to song and freedom round your olden feasts you watched my circling flights whereby your priests proclaimed their omens and their oracles my cranes announced your victories my storks fled your hearthfires my silver-throated gulls and golden hawks save many your sea towns from sore pestilence and my sweet night bird tuned your poets shells to lull sad lovers in languorous astadels yet all my influence shone dimmer than my beauty my bright plumes lured you to squander them till in the fumes of greed your heart forgot to cherish me and sold me unto death and slavery and much of this symbolism and not a little of the superstition with it has been handed down to us and is part of our everyday life and conversation for example the dove is the emblem of gentleness and peace the eagle of war and aggressive power the nightingale of song the owl of wisdom the vulture of greed and the raven of darkness and disaster nor are we entirely dependent on the ancients for such symbols we are beginning to adopt new ones our chickadee has become the symbol of friendliness our robin of cheerfulness and our bluebird of happiness and it will pay us to learn as many have already learned that the happiness which comes with the bluebird in the spring may be made to last through the rest of the year by sympathetic association with the other birds in their season in decorative art especially in oriental decorative art birds have a very important place for example the artists of Japan seem never too tired of using birds in their schemes of decoration all kinds of birds are used and nearly always with beautiful effect sometimes it is a songbird sitting with swell throat and parted bill among the delicately tinted blossoms of cherry or wild plum again it is a heron standing on one leg beside a conventional stream or a crow perched on a leafless branch amid the winter whiteness and still again it is a flock of swallows or wild geese flung out across the sky and telling their story as well as if the picture had been labeled spring it can hardly be doubted that in the origin of music the songs of birds were among the first suggestions supplied to primitive musicians by external nature later instrumental composers have found in the imitation of nature's voices a distinct phase of musical expression and in this the calls and songs of birds hold a conspicuous place the call of the cuckoo was a favorite motive among early instrumental composers and was used by Beethoven in the scene by a brook in the pastoral symphony together with the songs of the nightingale and the call of the quail another very notable example of the employment of bird notes by great composers is sound in Wagner's Siegfried Siegfried listens to the songs of birds made plain to him by a taste of the dragon's blood a bird sings to him of Brune Hilda the flame encircled warrior maiden the bird wings its flight through the forest and Siegfried follows joyously it hinders the creation as soprano sings on mighty pens uplifted sores the eagle aloft and cleaves the air in swiftest flight to the blazing sun his welcome bids to mourn the merry lark and cooing calls the tender dove his mate from every bush and grove resound the nightingale's delightful notes no grief affected yet her breast nor to a mournful tale were turned her soft enchanting lays greeks beautiful spring song fairly twitters with the joyous notes of birds and this was Schubert's hark hark the lark the chelon and apst when the swallows homeward fly are among the many familiar examples which might be cited of the contribution which birds directly and indirectly have made to music and birds have affected literature even more thousands of books have been written either holy or partly on birds many of these are English but all civilized peoples have their books on this subject one of the most beautiful and poetic is the bird the great French historian Jules Michelin as for the poets few of them have been able to resist the power of the birds and indeed it would seem that a poet could hardly remain unaffected by the charm of beings so essentially poetic some of the very earliest English poems in some cases anonymous had birds for their themes Chaucer was a bird lover and continually shows it King James I of Scotland in the early part of the 15th century wrote Spring's Song of the Birds Edmund Spencer wrote A Feathered Folk Shakespeare loosed to them again and again and William Blake never more tersely showed his sympathy for them than when he wrote A Robin Redbreast in a Cage Puts All Heaven in a Rage nearly all the later English poets Milton, Pope, Calper, Burns, Wordsworth, Hogg, Scott, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley Keats, Hood, Tennyson, Browning, Rosetti, Wilde and many others have received inspiration from the birds. This guy, Lark alone, has inspired many of them and perhaps none of the poems of Hogg or Shelley are better known than their odes to this famous songster. A few years ago the writer had reason to visit a New York department store and there he made the acquaintance of the chanted clear bow. At that moment the latest thing in women's neck wear. It was made of fluted satin ribbon and it would have been commonplace enough but for the fact that in the center of it was the head of an English Skylark and it was but one of scores of similar bows exposed to the indifferent gaze of thousands some of whom stopped to buy for money what no money on earth should be permitted to buy. The writer is not a poet but a boy who had spent in England made him an ardent lover of the Skylark and perhaps the reader can guess what feelings possessed him was the mummied head of that modest little bard on a tawdry bow in a department store. Perhaps what he felt most keenly was the degradation of the bird and it filled him with such indignation that he sought the manager of the store and registered a vigorous protest. This was followed by a written one to the proprietors and by a letter which was printed in the New York Times but the National Association of Audubon Societies under the direction of William Dutcher in which he worked on the case and it was but a short time before the sale of Chanticleer bows was stopped. Let us hope for ever. And American poets have held their own in showing appreciation of Wild Birds, Bryant, Drake, Emerson, Whittier, Longfellow, Poe, Holmes, Van Dyke, and McKay are among the many who have tuned their lives to the songs of birds. Of all Poe's poems the best known is the raven of Bryant's few are better known than to a waterfowl. Wild Birds can awaken poetry in the heart of a child as shown by the hermit's rush written by Percy McKay's little daughter Arvia at the age of nine. In short as John Burroughs indicates in his book Birds and Poets, these bars are inseparable and Tennyson must have felt this when he wrote the Poets song. And he sat him down in a lonely place and chanted a melody loud and sweet that made the wild swan pause in her cloud and the lark dropped down at his feet. The swallow stopped as he hunted the bee, the snake slipped under a spray, the wild hawk stood with the down on his beak and stared with his foot on the prey. And the nightingale thought, I have sung many songs but never a one so gay for he sings of what the world will be when the years have died away. And perhaps our own Van Dyke felt it even more deeply when at the close of his lovely poem on the veery he sings, and when my light of life is low and hard and flesh or weary, I feign would hear before I go the wood note of the veery. And I've noticed that the work of providing for the needs of wild birds has a wonderfully good effect upon the people engaged in it. In the first place it awakens or stimulates an interest in an important and fascinating subject and provides for the mental and physical activity an outlet which can lead only to good. Through it the coming generation will get practical experience in the conservation of our natural resources and thus by taking part in a great national movement they will at an early age begin to feel the joy of being useful. Most work of a public nature is impractical for children, but here is a work in which young people can be almost as useful as older ones and at the same time provide for themselves one of the sweetest and most satisfying hobbies known to man. Work for the birds tends to thoughtfulness and consideration in as much as it is inspired by the work the birds do for us it encourages appreciation and gratitude and a sense of justice and fair play as it brings to the worker a sense of the helplessness of his feathered friends at certain times it begets feelings of humanity, kindness, sympathy and compassion and stimulates warmth of heart and if some personal sacrifice is required in order to do this work the worker gets practice in unselfishness and it is the opinion of the author that if children once learn these things they will have made a very fair start towards good citizenship if they are not taught anything else. End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of Wild Bird Guests by Ernest Baines This LibriVox recording is in the public domain The entertainment of wild birds in winter If we are lovers of birds and who would like to admit that he is not one that fact alone should be sufficient to ensure our feeding them in winter, for it is not conceivable that we would allow those whom we love to run the risk of starving to death if by any reasonable effort we could prevent it. In spite of all we can do many birds will die of starvation almost every winter but the more of us there are who will give even a little thought go to even a little trouble for their welfare the fewer deaths there will be. Looking at the matter merely from the standpoint of our own pleasure we shall soon learn that by feeding the birds regularly we shall make a lot of new friends and that with a little patience and a little ingenuity sometimes we may soon be on terms of the most delightful intimacy with them. At our home we are continually having unique and interesting experiences with the birds which accept our hospitality. We had one only this morning, September 18, 1914, a little band of chickadees came into our lilac bushes and vents flew down to a bird bath made from a huge shell and took their baths. Mrs. Baines went out and called them and two of them alighted upon her at once one was dingy in color and somewhat disheveled and looked as though it might have just finished a very tedious nesting season. The other looked very clean and fresh and by its voice alone we knew it to be a young one on the left leg of the dingy one was a tiny aluminum band and as the bird preened its feathers we could read on this band the number. Instantly we knew her for an old friend of ours a year before last she nested in a burlap nest box in our garden and was so tame doubtless because we had fed her the winter before that she came straight from the nest to Mrs. Baines hand for nut meat. On one occasion I went up a ladder to the nest box and this bird alighted at the entrance hole she was so fearless that I put my hand gently over her and placed the little band upon her leg that was over two years ago and here she was back again fearless as ever and with the young one very likely one of her own. Some of us feed the birds all the year round because we like to see them about moreover they are more likely to nest in the garden if they are in the habit of coming there for food every day and we believe that if it does cost us a few pennies for seed and soot it pays in more ways than one. As a rule no matter how much food is put out the bird seem to regard it simply as a reserve supply and continue to get nine-tenths of their living in the usual way. Purple finches are notable exceptions to this rule it has been my experience that they absolutely refuse to work as long as they are well supplied with seed but then the male purple finch is a splendid singer and has a long period of song and perhaps he should be excused from further work on the ground that he is an artist but the birds actually need food only when for some reason their natural supply is not to be had this is often the case in winter especially after heavy snowstorms at such times let us pay no attention to the wise acres who tell us that they are pauperizing the birds they might just as well argue against supplying food to starving men let us save the lives of a few thousand birds and then if anyone finds that we have made a mistake in doing this we'll stand the consequences. Perhaps no branch of bird feeding work is more in need of consideration at this time than that which provides for the great army of game birds and others which struggle along as best they can in the woods and fields it seems to be the duty of the people in every town where deep snows prevail in winter to see that their own birds are provided for and not allowed to starve and it has been my experience that nice people of all classes are of just one mind on this subject the only question which should be raised at such a time is how shall we do it? If there is a really live efficient bird club in the town it will answer this question promptly and if there are boy scouts in the neighborhood of course they will cooperate with enthusiasm if there is no such club then one should be organized as soon as possible and in the meantime I will suggest a plan which has proved successful in several different towns and which may help until a better one is thought out first of all two or three enthusiasts call a meeting of all those interested in the welfare of the wild birds this is done through the local paper if there is one or through the school children or both in any other way which may be convenient a special effort is made to have this meeting attended by the superintendent of schools and as many principals, teachers and ministers as possible this tends to impress the school children and others with the dignity and importance of the work and has a good general effect the necessity for feeding the birds in winter is explained very carefully and then a few committees are appointed to arrange details one committee devotes itself to obtaining bird food and money to buy food and sometimes calls to its assistance such available outsiders as may be able to help there are very few people in any American town who will refuse to help such work along in one way or another if the matter is brought directly to their attention in a proper way it is usually possible to approach many people personally but in any case the school children can be urged to explain the matter to their parents and local papers are usually very willing to make known the needs of the committee local grocers butchers and grain dealers I have found to be among the most generous contributors and often after they have given all they can afford they will sell to the bird feeders a considerable amount of food at cost in the meantime another committee is busy getting the names of volunteers to distribute the food in the woods and fields here let me say that this work is not as a rule suitable for small children girls or women it should be done by strong healthy boys and by such men as can afford it will make the time it has been my experience that no better workers can be found than the boys from the high schools and the upper grades of the grammar schools this is especially true if they belong to the Boy Scouts as a rule their work should be superintendent by some older person in whom they have confidence but whoever the workers are they should have the support of the entire community they are engaged in a public work of great value the coming of the first real snowstorm is considered the signal for the beginning of operations the volunteers meet at some convenient building as the high school or the town hall where the bird food has previously been stored and if they are wise they come dressed for work in the snow the country in and about the town is divided into sections and a squad varying in size with the number of volunteers and the amount of territory to be covered is sent to each section usually a squad consists of two three or four boys who may or may not have an older person as leader each squad should be provided with snow shovels to remove the snow or better snow shoes to trample it down hard they should also have a bag or basket to carry a mixture of grain and bird seed a quantity of that meter of soot and plenty of string with which to tie it through the trunks and branches of the trees the twit or other fat which is of course intended chiefly for the insectivorous birds is displayed in conspicuous places on the branches of trees and the string is wound round and round so as to form a sort of net which prevents the food from falling to the ground even after it has been grown beautifully smaller under the attacks of hungry birds this network of string also prevents a crow or a blue jay from carrying off the whole lump at once and found wise to use three or four separate pieces of string so that if a squirrel comes along and cuts one of them the soot being held by the others will not fall to the ground another way to prevent troubles of this kind is to flatten out a large lump of soot against a tree trunk and fasten over it with staples a square foot of half inch wire and netting if the upper edge is fastened rather likely this netting may be made to form a pocket which may be opened and stuffed with more soot as occasion requires here any hungry bird can get a meal on the spot but no selfish one can leave his fellows in distress by carrying home the whole feast as a rule the best places to distribute grain seed etc. are in the middle of wide open fields and pastures which can be seen for a considerable distance by birds flying over on reaching such a spot the members of the squad fall to with their shovels or snowshoes and clear or trample a space from 10 to 20 feet square if the food were thrown on untrodden snow it would be likely to sink in at the first thought and then it would be quite out of the reach of most of the hungry ones after scattering a quantity of grain the squad moves on perhaps half a mile and repeats the operation establishing as many feeding stations as possible in its own section during the time at its disposal of course it may be somewhat disheartening to find that seed scattered during the afternoon is covered up by snow in the next morning as sometimes happens but boys with the right stuff in them will not be discouraged but will stand up to their work until it is finished the high school boys of Stoneham, Massachusetts were among the first to show that no amount of snow could discourage bird feeders who had the proper spirit and in the unusually severe winter of 1903 to 1904 they got out with their snow shovels and grain and sewed after every storm and established a chain of 75 feeding stations around their town so that no intelligent bird could get either in or out without taking a meal if he wanted one these boys fed thousands of hungry birds that winter and made their school famous by their splendid work they saved a few of the very few flocks of Massachusetts quail which survived that winter if all the high schools in the state had been organized for this work the death of unnumbered bob whites would have been prevented every farmer should make a point of keeping the birds in his fields and woodland supplied with food during bad weather for as we have seen he is amongst those most greatly benefited by the presence of birds besides he generally has on hand plenty of food in the shape of wheat oats etc. which can be offered whole to the large birds and ground to the small ones country doctors, rural postmen and others who have to take long drives through the country in winter and service by distributing food that likely spots or by reporting to the regular bird feeders covies of quail or signs of covies seen or heard of at points along route snowshoeing, skiing, slaying, parties and others out for pleasure during the winter may well assist in this work by establishing a feeding station here and there and if they are thoughtful people the thought that they have done a kindly and useful act will tend to increase their pleasure and will greatly add to their store of pleasant memories where the people of each town and village and Hamlet can take care of its own birds and the result will be a marked increase in their numbers without very much trouble or expense to any one person but it is the feeding of the birds in the home grounds in the gardens and orchards that appeals to the greatest number of people here is a work in which almost everyone little children and elderly people included can take an active part and here is a rule will begin those strong friendships with the stance bird protectors of the future here will come many of those delightful experiences with birds which will be among the purest delights of childhood which will surely be looked forward to and repeated with pleasure and satisfaction as the years go by and which we can never grow too old to enjoy unless we are among the few who feed the birds all the year round we should begin to prepare rather early for the winter work even before the first frost begin to suggest whether it is cold or weather we may order from the butcher a few pounds of suet or fat fresh pork and find out the best place to buy bird seed by buying seed at wholesale say 100 pounds at a time it may be had at a very low price for example the meridan bird club buys its hemp seed at 4 cents a pound when the retail price per pound is 10 cents we buy other seeds at equally low rates many people do not care to buy it so much seed at once but if there is a bird club in town the club can buy it in large quantities and sell it to members at cost or if there is no club a few neighbors can club together order 100 pounds or more sent to one address and then divide it afterwards hemp seed in Japanese millet are among the best seeds to offer the birds in winter most of the seed eating birds will eat one or both of these and chickadees and nut hatches chiefly insectivorous are very fond of hemp sunflower and canary seed are both eaten by a number of birds as are squash and pumpkin seeds corn oats wheat bread crumbs donut crumbs dog biscuit crumbs and the seeds to be found in barn floor sweepings nuts are a favorite food of chickadees nut hatches and some other birds but of course those with hard shells must be cracked before being served as a substitute for insect food there is nothing better than suet unless it be the mixture known as food stone the recipe for which I shall give farther on suet is easy to get an easy to handle many birds like it and eat it freely it is warmth producing and nourishing it keeps fresh for a long time and when it becomes rancid the birds seem to like it just as well as I look out of my window at this moment I can see a downy woodpecker feeding on suet which was put up about a year ago I give below a list by no means exhaustive of foods in general use for the winter feeding of wild birds with each kind of food will be found the names of at least some of the birds which have been seen eating it suet screech owl harry woodpecker downy woodpecker red belly woodpecker flicker blue jay crow clerks nutcracker starling tree spare jonka rose breasted gross bee myrtle warbler brown creeper white breasted nut hatch red breasted nut hatch chickadee Hudsonian chickadee hermit thrush fat pork harry woodpecker downy woodpecker blue jay crow white breasted nut hatch tufted titmouse chickadee raw meat screech owl harry woodpecker downy woodpecker blue jay white breasted nut hatch chickadee hemp seed pine gross bee purple finch red paw gold finch pine siskian best for spare white crown spare white throated spare jonka song spare white breasted nut hatch chickadee millet seed purple finch red paw gold finch pine siskian best for spare white throated spare tree spare chipping spare jonka song spare fox spare crack corn shorelark blue jay crow snowbunting latlan long spur tree spare jonka cardinal gross speak white breasted nut hatch bread crumbs blue jay crow tree spare white crown spare jonka cardinal gross speak mockingbird brown creeper chickadee broken nuts blue jay white crown spare jonka cardinal gross speak white breasted nut hatch red breasted nut hatch tufted titmouse chickadee dog biscuit crumbs blue jay snowbunting tree spare jonka white breasted nut hatch chickadee sunflower seeds blue jay purple finch gold finch white breasted nut hatch chickadee chaff quail shorelark latlan long spur snowbunting tree spare oats quail rough grouse yellow-headed blackbird snowbunting chickadee whole corn blue jay crow white breasted nut hatch chickadee canary seed gold finch best for spare jonka song spare donut crumbs blue jay crow white breasted nut hatch chickadee wheat quail roughed grouse kaffir corn white-throated sparrow song spare broken squash seed white breasted nut hatch chickadee salt salt water and mud impregnated with salt white wing crossbill American crossbill the author is very well aware that the above lists are not complete either with regard to the kinds of food which the winter birds will eat or with regard to the kinds of birds which will eat the birds which are mentioned. These lists can be made complete only as a result of the careful experiments of many observers working for a considerable period over a wide territory. At present they are as complete as can be made from other records compiled by Gilbert H. Traffton by the author himself and by other members of that merident bird club. They will enable the reader to make a fair start and he can then experiment for himself as much as time and inclination will permit. In addition to food many birds will appreciate a little grit which is often hard to get in winter. Sand is best perhaps but coal ashes will do and a flock of crossbills which made us a long visit a year or two ago spent hours every day picking up particles of mortar which we obtained from some old bricks and pounded up with a hammer. You might never have guessed how fond they were of this particular kind of grit had we not seen them swarming over a ruined building and discovered with the aid of a field that apparently they were nibbling the mortar which held the bricks together. We got some of this mortar pounded it up and scattered it on well trampled snow in the garden and down came that crossbill not only that day but every day for weeks. The flock usually arrived between half past seven and eight o'clock in the morning and were engaged in eating mortar until between one and two in the afternoon when the greater part of them disappeared in the evergreen forest nearby not to be seen again until the following morning. They became very fearless coming to windows allowing us to walk about among them when they were feeding a lighting freely on our hands and heads and even permitting us to pick them up one in each hand. When sometimes I lay on the ground among them they would poke their heads into my sleeves and if my Ulster was not tightly buttoned some of them would creep inside while they were in the garden they kept up an incessant musical twittering which added greatly to the pleasure they gave us. But to return to our work there are certain differences such as food houses, window boxes, food trolleys etc which it is very pleasant to have and which may be made at home or by local carpenters or which may be bought ready made. But if we cannot afford either the time to make them or the money to buy these things we can get along pretty well without them. Let us get out our food early the birds may not eat much of it at first but they will have a chance to find out where it is and be able to go directly to it when they really need it. We might begin by getting out some suet I believe in having rather large pieces weighing say about a pound a piece at a few principal points and a number of smaller pieces gathered more widely in order to attract the attention of as many birds as possible and guide them to the larger plumps. If our final object is to attract the birds to points near the house let us first select the side of the house to which we wish to bring them. If we try to attract them to all sides we can probably do it but shall not have as many in any one place. Usually people like to have them come to points where they can be seen from the principal living room. Suppose then that we decide on this plan let us look out of the window and see if we can find a tree say 75 or 100 feet away to which we can tie one of our lumps of suet. Let us suppose that we see such a tree and that there is a well-exposed branch from 8 to 12 feet from the ground. We fix that branch in our minds and suet in hand we go out to the tree. Perhaps we can easily climb to the branch but if not we can get a ladder. We should have three or four pieces of soft string of convenient length and with one of these tie the suet at just the place and in just the position we want it. It is well to have it either on top of the branch or on the side of it. If it is fastened underneath certain birds which like suet would find it hard to get at. If it is fastened on the side of the branch of course it should be on the side near the house where it can be seen. The other pieces of string should now be crisscrossed back and forth and should bite into the suet a little at each turn so that it may be left snug and tight. The loose ends of the string may now be cut off and the deed is done. Next let us go to a tree safe from 10 to 20 feet from the window and there we will tie a second piece of suet at about the height of the window itself. A third piece we will tie either to the windowsill or to a stick or a board which may be fastened to the windowsill. Those three we will call our main suet stations. Smaller pieces of suet we will tie in trees and shrubs out in all directions from the house and further away from it. These distant ones will probably be visited first and as the birds gain confidence they should come near and near until they come to the window itself. To encourage those who may think it a difficult matter to gain the confidence of our feathered neighbors I give the following list of 22 kinds of birds which have come to feed at windows in the village of Meridan, New Hampshire where we have been for the past four years. Those marked with a star have visited our own window. Harry Wittpecker, Downey Wittpecker, Ruby Throde at Hummingbird, Lou J, Pine Grossby, Purple Finch, White Wing Crossbill, Red Paul, Pine Siskin, Vesper Sparrow, White Crown Sparrow, White Throde Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Junko, Song Sparrow, Myrtle Warbler, Winter Wren, White Breasted Nuthatch, Red Breasted Nuthatch, Chickadee, Red Sony and Chickadee. This is probably the largest list for any one town or village. The Red Bellied Wittpecker, Snow Bunting, Fox Sparrow, Brown Creeper and Hermit Thrush have also been known to feed at the windows of houses, but they have never done so in Meridan, though we have them all here with the exception of the Wittpecker. If it becomes necessary to put out more at Suet during the intensely cold weather, we shall find it a good plan to bring some short branches into the house and tie on the Suet in comfort, then if we drive a couple of wire nails part way through each branch we can carry it out and quickly nail to any tree we like. If we wish to go to just a little more expense, we can make the Suet pockets of half inch wire netting and staple them to the trunks of trees instead of tying the Suet itself to the branches. The simplest way to feed the seed eating birds is to scatter the food on the ground. If there is soft deep snow, the food should not be thrown upon it. Seed and most other foods quickly sink to soft snow and besides most birds do not like to flounder about in the snowdrifts in order to get a bite to eat. The snow may be swept or shoveled away but personally I much prefer to trample it down. It is not easy even with the snow shovel to thoroughly clear a generous space where there is long grass or weeds, cleared spaces are apt to become wet or muddy and are usually unsightly. The trampling process is quicker, much quicker if we have snow shoes. It makes no unsightly patches and over the well-trodden snow forms the most pleasing background against which to see our feathered gas. It is best to put out a day's supply of fresh food each morning. The birds learn to connect our appearance with the coming of good things for them and gradually lose their fear of us. Moreover by putting out comparatively small quantities of food we avoid the danger of unnecessary waste when snowstorms come and cover up whatever is on the ground. If there is danger from cats we should select for our feeding space well out in the open. If there are shrubs or other tall plants about the cats we'll be able to creep up within leaping distance before the birds are aware of their presence. This much we can do without any appliances and at no expense beyond the cost of the food but some of us will wish to make rather more elaborate preparations so I shall now describe some of the feeding devices which I have tried and found satisfactory for attracting birds to the home grounds. The food tray. One of the simplest devices is a food tray or a lunch counter which anyone can make if it can be said to need making. It may be a shallow cigar box though this is rather small. A better one could be made from a piece of board say a foot or 18 inches wide and two or three feet long with lies or similar strips of wood nailed around to form a rim so that the seeds will not roll off. A good sized hole should be bored in each corner and over each on the underside of the tray should be tagged a piece of wired netting. This will prevent the tray from becoming full of water when it rains. Such a tray with a stick below to brace it may be fast into a tree to the window sill or both and if a supply of food is kept in it all the time the birds are sure to find it. If a roof is arranged over it becomes a food shelter and will not require sweeping off after every snow storm. Besides putting seed and other food in the tray itself we sometimes fast into the tray an upright branch or small log and do this attach a piece of suet. This is for the convenience of any woodpeckers which may come though it is not really necessary even for them. The window box few devices have given more satisfaction to members of our household than the window box which was made from a sketch kindly sent to me by William Dutcher president of the National Association of Audubon Societies. It is made to fit the open window the sash coming down snug into a groove in the woodwork at the top. It projects into the room about a foot. The top back and sides are a glass which helps to give the room a cheerful sunny appearance. The floor of the box is of wood and in the form of a tray projects into the garden 10 or 12 inches. At the top and inside the room of course is a hinged lid through which we put the food in which can be used to ventilate the room when necessary. This window box has proved a great success and at different times I've seen it filled with blue jays, pine grows beaks, red paws crossbills and chickadees while many other birds have come in smaller numbers. At first we helped the birds to find it by erecting in the garden about 10 feet from the window an old stump to which we tied big lumps of suet. Birds began to come to the stump and from there they would come to the feast arranged for them in the window box. The stump was then removed but the birds continued to come to the window in ever increasing numbers. Some people prefer to have their window boxes fast into the window sill but entirely outside the window. This is almost as good but you can't have the birds quite so near and it is not quite so easy to put in the food. On the other hand almost anyone can make an outside window box while one required to fit the sash of an open window well enough to keep out this draft must as a rule be made by a carpenter. The weather cock food house another device suggested to me by Mr. Dutcher which has proved equally successful is what I have named the weather cock food house because like a weather cock it moves with the wind. It is little more than a well-made food shelter set on a pole and pivoted so that it can revolve horizontally. Two paddle shaped arms or wings extend one on either side to catch the wind which thus turns the open side of the house away from the storms at all times. The back is a single sheet of glass and sometimes the sides are also glass all kinds of winter birds and a number of summer birds too come to this house and they don't mind the motion of it anymore than we mind the motion of an express train when we're sitting in the dining car. After we've been attracting the birds for a little while every corner of the garden will have some interesting association connected with the work every device or appliance we have used will recall some delightful or amusing incident. The mere mention of our weather cock reminds me of a joke it once helped me to play Mrs. Baines had for some time been busy coloring a set of artificial birds made of cardboard which she intended to present to a school. She had begun work on the Blue Jay and asked me if I could send for her a good picture of the bird from which she could sketch the markings of the wings. I found several but they would not do chiefly because they showed the wings folded whereas the bird she was making had the wings extended. At last I said jokingly well I see there's nothing for me to do but go out into the garden and catch you a live one. With that I walked from her room into my study and looking out of the window saw a flock of Blue Jays feeding in the weather cock at that moment something startled them and out they flew all but one and he flew into the glass at the back then he lost his head and began fighting the glass and I opened the front door walked across the lawn and caught him spreading out one of his wings I went back into Mrs. Baines's room and without a trace of a smile asked will this do you can imagine her astonishment better than I can describe it she made her notes on the markings of the wings then we put an aluminum band on the bird's leg and let him go it was exactly a month before we saw him feeding with other Jays in the window box. The Audubon food house then Mr. Frederick H. Conard the landscape architect sent us a plan about food house which he had designed and found successful on his own estate at Newton Center Massachusetts. It was an adaptation of a device invented by Baron Hans von Burrill-Epps the great German bird lover of who's interesting experiments I shall speak again later on. As may be seen in the illustrations it consists of two food trays one above another the upper and larger being protected from the snow and rain by a four-sided hopper roof and from the wind by an apron of glass which falls from the roof. The hole supported by a single rustic pole running to the peak. We called this the Audubon food house and it has been proved a success in half a dozen gardens of meridian and in hundreds of others in different parts of the country. This food house should be erected among or near shrubs or beneath the low growing branches of a tree at least it is in such a place that it will be most quickly discovered by the birds. Until the latter become acquainted with it food should be put in both trays. The lower and unprotected tray is the more conspicuous and will of course be seen first when the food has gone from that or sometimes before it has gone some of the birds will find their way to the upper tray and the rest will soon follow. After that no more food need be put in the lower tray in case the birds are a little slow in finding their way about one or two crooked twigs arranged so that they connect the two trays will usually show the little guest their way upstairs. These twigs may be removed a few days later the glass apron in addition to serving as a protection from the wind admits light to enable the birds to see what they are doing and also permits the host to see his guests at dinner. For several years now we have had an Audubon food house in our garden and during the winter there is a continual stream of birds going to and from that house. Our neighbors report similar experiences of birds feeding in either this house or the weather cock would be in little danger from a cat even though the latter should climb the pole. The cat would have to climb around over the underside of the food tray and while the birds would of course be frightened when her head came up over the rim they would have plenty of time to escape before she would be in a position to spring upon them. Several adaptations of the Audubon food house may be made or purchased. The most interesting perhaps being one with the upper tray to which it supplies seed as fast as the birds eat it. The top of the roof is removable and half a bush or more of seed can be poured in at once. This is a very good style of house for people who cannot get out to replenish the food trays themselves or who go to the city in the winter and wish to be sure that the birds are fed while they are away but no matter what kind of feeding device is used by people who are away from their country homes during the winter it is nearly always possible to arrange for a country neighbor to replenish the food as it is needed. The food bell. The food bell is another device invented by Von Bärlepsch and used especially for feeding Tidmice. It consists of a glass receptacle holding a quarter or two of hemp seed connected at the bottom with a tube down which the seed falls to supply a tiny food dish which is protected from the weather by a metal bell a foot in diameter from which it takes its name. It can be fastened to trees piazza posts or the sides of windows by means of iron rods which are screwed into the wood above and below. A piece of suet or a net bag of nut meats will serve to guide the birds to the food dish in the first instance. We have given this device a long trial in Meriden and find it very good for chickadees. They fly up under the bell and carry off the hemp seed one at a time to some near perch. Each seed is held with the feet while the shell is cracked with the bill. A recent visitor to the bird sanctuary was delighted to find that the chickadees came to the food bell quite unconcerned while she stood with her hand resting on the bell. The food tree is simply an evergreen preferably a spruce fir or hamlot covered with bird food. A discarded Christmas tree will answer the purpose very well. A growing tree should not be used as the following treatment will kill it. There is no limit as to size though a rather small tree will be found more convenient in every way than a large one. I generally select one about 12 feet high cut off all branches within two or three feet of the butt before setting it in the ground not too far from my window to get a good view of any bird visitors who may come. This much may be done in the fall but beyond tying on a piece of pseudo scattering a little seed at the base perhaps it is best not to go any farther until the coming of subtle cool weather. Then there should be poured over the twigs and branches bubbling hot bird food made from the following recipe which is another contribution from Baron Hans von Berlepch. White bread dried in ground four and a half ounces, meat dried in ground three ounces, hemp six ounces crushed hemp three ounces, maw three ounces, poppy flour two and a half ounces, millet white three ounces, oats one and a half ounces, dried elderberries one and a half ounces, sunflower seeds one and a half ounces, and eggs one and a half ounces. To the total quantity of this dried food must be added about one and a half times as much beef or mutton, suet or fat of almost any kind. The fat must be melted in the dried food stirred in thoroughly. This mixture bubbling hot should be poured carefully over all the twigs and branches of the evergreen care being taken to keep it well stirred up during the operation. It may be poured with a long handle ladle held in one hand and the drip can be caught in a frying pan or something similar held in the other. The cold air will quickly set the fat with all the good things it contains on the tree where both insectivers and seed-eating birds will find it and each take what he likes best from the variety of food offered. If there's any of the mixture left after the tree is covered it may be poured into molds and when hard served as food cake or food stone in the trays or food houses. It is not necessary to stick very closely to the recipe. The ground, dried beef, the hemp seed and the breadcrum should always be used and of course the fat is essential. If certain of the other ingredients cannot readily be obtained they may be left out or other good foods such as nuts and pumpkin seeds ground or chopped may be substituted for them. Now a suggestion about preparing the meat the first time I made this food I dried the raw beef and attempted to grind it afterwards. I found myself in trouble at once. Next time I found it very much easier to grind the fresh raw beef very fine in a meat grinder and then spread it in a slow oven. When dried in this way it may be readily crumbled and mixed with the other ingredients. Probably every woman knows this but the hint may be useful to men and children. Another way to use up a small quantity of the mixture is to pour it over a single detached branch of an evergreen and then fasten that branch to any tree in the garden. A style of fruit tree very popular with children is one on which the fruit is hung as presents are hung on a Christmas tree. In fact it is sometimes called a bird's Christmas tree. This may be either a freshly cut tree stuck in the ground or almost any growing tree in the garden. To the branches may be hung net bags filled with nuts or soot, little chunks of bacon doughnuts and similar dainties or coconuts each with a good sized hole in the side and stuffed with burlatch, food, soot or any other food that packs well. The stuffed coconut was suggested to me by Dr. A.K. Fisher who fills the cavity with fresh pork fat and black walnut kernels and fast as the nut in the tree at his camp near Washington. Chickadees, tufted titmice, nut hatches, downy woodpeckers and junkos are among the birds he has had visit him. Some of them go right inside the nut after they have eaten all the food which can be reached without doing so. The food trolley. The food trolley is simply a food tray or lunch counter provided with grooved wheels by means of which it can be made to glide along beneath a wire or wire stretched between some point in the garden and a higher point say an upper window at the house. Mr. Gilbert H. Traffton describes a moving food tray of this kind which he suspended from a single wire by means of two pulley wheels set in a frame. This he found on the whole the most satisfactory device he has tried. The author's food trolley which has been on duty in his garden for several years embodies the same general idea. It consists of a food tray about 18 inches square slung below two wires 18 inches apart stretched out at the same height between a second story bedroom window sill and a wooden bar nailed to a branch of an apple tree at a point eight feet above the ground and about a hundred feet from the house. Four pulley wheels are used one on each corner of the tray but the two near the house are screwed to short wooden pillars rising from the corresponding corners of the tray so that although the wires are on a slanted tray itself remains horizontal by means of the pulley wheels two on each wire the tray glides easily back and forth. It is drawn up to the window by a string and runs back down to the apple tree by its own weight. The chief use of the food trolley is to encourage shy birds to approach the house by easy stages. The plan is this, the tray is drawn up to the window filled with bird food and allowed to run back to the tree. Timid birds readily come to the tree and very soon learn to feed from the tray which they find there. As soon as they begin to come freely the tray may be drawn up a few feet near the house. It is best to do this late in the evening after the birds have finished feeding for the day and not having been frightened when they return in the morning they will not hesitate to venture the extra few feet in order to get their breakfast. Every day or two the tray may be drawn a little near the house until the birds find themselves feeding at the window. When used for this purpose it is best to have no roof over the tray. Very timid birds are afraid of any device which seems to shut them in. As for the snow it is easily brushed off when the tray is drawn up to the window. Later on of course if the trolley is to be used for other purposes only it will be an easy matter to construct a simple roof for it. No doubt the reader will soon think of other methods and invent other devices for feeding the birds in winter. But in the meantime those I have mentioned will serve all practical purposes. Do not be discouraged if the birds do not accept your invitations at once while sometimes they will come in almost immediately. In many cases they will not do so for weeks or even months. But keep food out all the time so that when they do come they will find a good food and should come again and bring their friends. End of chapter 7.