172 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXII. 



well and is, under the conditions, all that he can be 

 confident of? I would say that neither Mr. Munro 

 or the above authors are specially singled out for 

 this stricture as the practice is a well nigh universal 

 one amongst ornithological writers. It is only by 

 calling attention to an indefensible general practice 

 that it can be corrected. 



In GENERAL NOTES, p. 100-101, W. L. McAtee 

 under title "Further Notes on the 'Fishy' Flavor of 

 Birds", shows that this is not caused by the eating 

 of fish. That fish-eating birds are not necessarily 

 fishy in flavor and many species that eat little or no 

 fish are often so characterized. He does not doubt 

 that the food eaten influences the flavor of the eater 

 but regards "fishy" in this connection as a loose 

 term for flavors that have nothing to do with fish. 



Under NoTES ON NoRTH American Birds, pp. 

 81-85, H. C. Oberholser discusses the proposed re- 

 duction of our American Green-wmged Teal of 

 subspecific relationship with the European form as 

 endorsed by the Committee of the British Ornithol- 

 ogist's Union. He finds that the two are separated 

 by constant characters and show no indications of 

 intergrading. He, therefore, decides that the two 

 are specifically distinct as at present regarded in our 

 Check lists. On contrary grounds he supports 

 Hartet's contention that the American Marsh Hawk 

 is only superficially distinct from the European bird 

 and should stand as Circus c^aneus hudsonius. Sim- 

 ilarly he also lumps our Short-billed Gull with the 

 Common Gull of Europe, calling it Larus canus 

 hrach^rh'^nchus. He also finds that the North-west 

 Crow hitherto regarded as a distinct species inter- 

 grades with the Western Crow which is only sub- 

 specifically distinct from the eastern bird. If this is 

 demonstratable the North-west Crow will have to 

 be called in future Conms hrachyrh^nchos caurinus. 



P. A. T. 



Food, Feeding and Drinking Appliances and 

 Nesting Material to Attract Birds. By Ed- 

 ward Howe Forbush. The Commonwealth of 

 Massachusetts. State Department of Agriculture. 

 Departmental Circular No. 2. September, 1918. 



In an attractive little pamphlet of 31 pages, with 

 30 figures, drawings, and halftone illustrations, Mr. 

 Forbush gives an interesting summary of most of 

 the successful devices which are being used by 

 biid-Iovers to attract birds to the vicinity of their 

 city homes and country estates. First and fore- 

 most he recommends the elimination of the house 

 cats. As extirpation of the neighbor's felines is 

 not always practicable, he recommends enclosure of 

 the yard by a cat-proof fence. The only always 

 successful fence for this purpose is a fine-meshed 

 wire netting 6 feet high, with a fish-net suspended 



from slim poles at the top. Tangles of vines and 

 shrubbery are recommended as places of shelter and 

 retreat for small birds. 



The first and greatest need of birds, however, is 

 food, and by judicious and systematic feeding many 

 winter birds may be induced to come around the 

 house and often become so tame that they will eat 

 from the hand. Many birds' lives may also be saved 

 by feedmg at exceptional times in spring and autumn, 

 when the weather is unusually cold or wet, or sleety, 

 so that the birds become chilled and weakened and 

 cannot find sufficient food. Whole grain, which can 

 be used for human food, for farm animals or poultry, 

 is unnecessary for small birds, but may be used for 

 game birds. Where weeds are abundant, the smaller 

 seed-eating birds need little else, but where weeds 

 are kept down, or where they are covered with 

 snow, other food should be provided. Many culti- 

 vated flowering annuals, such as asters, portulacas, 

 California poppies, etc., bear seeds attractive to seed- 

 eating birds. 



Chickadees, nuthatches, jays, and some other 

 birds are fond of nut meats, as well as fatty bits of 

 meat, suet, skinned carcasses of small animals, and 

 the like. Suet should be enclosed in crocheted bags, 

 or tied to the branches of trees to prevent greedy 

 crows or jays from carrying off the whole piece at 

 once. Grits, sand, broken plaster, etc., are attractive 

 to birds as an aid to digestion, and they sometimes 

 have difficulty in satisfying their desires for it when 

 the ground is covered with snow. Ground-feeding 

 birds are often necessarily fed on the ground at first 

 to accustom them to food receptacles, but ground 

 feeding is wasteful, the food being spoiled by rain or 

 covered by snow and ice unless it is under cover. 



A feeding shelf or table may be set at a window 

 on the south side of the house and supplied from 

 inside, or a moving food-shelf may be hung on a 

 near-by tree. The birds may be watched at close 

 range from within if the window is protected by a 

 sash-curtain. The weather-vane food house is con- 

 sidered the most perfect device for outdoor feeding, 

 and should have a hopper on top that can be filled 

 with seed. The weather-vane food house swings 

 with the wind and always keeps the opening away 

 from wind and storm. Various anti-squirrel and 

 anti-sparrow devices are recommended to those who 

 do not care to feed English sparrows or squirrels. 

 For instance, two pieces of suet may be suspended 

 by a piece of string. Native birds will readily cling 

 and feed, but the sparrows find it difficult. The 

 method employed by Mr. W. E. Saunders, of 

 London, Ontario, is to pour melted tallow mixed 

 with sunflower seeds upon a flat board with a perch 

 to which the native birds can cling, the board being 

 fastened up in an inverted position. 



