1906.] BIRDS ABOUT OUR FARM HOMES. I95 



Next a shelf or table may be made of half-inch box boards. 

 The side of a large shoe box will do. This may be covered 

 with old bagging and a cleat or rail put about the edge to 

 prevent the food put on it from blowing away. A little ever- 

 green tree may be set up on the shelf which is then fastened 

 under a window sill, as seen in the plate, and the birds' Christ- 

 mas tree is ready. Various food materials are fastened to the 

 tree. Chaff and seed are scattered on the shelf, and when the 

 first snowstorm comes, if not before, sparrows, chickadees, 

 woodpeckers, and perhaps even jays will visit the shelf at in- 

 tervals all day. This feeding shelf can be attended to, the snow 

 brushed off, and the food replenished from within by merely 

 opening the window. If the birds are shy at first, a lace sash 

 curtain may be put up, and any one may then sit at the win- 

 dow and watch them as well as though they were hung up in 

 a cage in the house. The birds may quarrel some at first, 

 but they will soon learn to feed together in amity, and so with 

 very little trouble and care we can establish a winter aviary 

 out of doors. This shelf should be high enough to be out of 

 the reach of cats and dogs, so that the birds may feel safe in 

 coming there. In time they will become so tame that they will 

 come into the house when the window is left open and will take 

 food from the table. We have to keep the doors and windows 

 closed at my home, else the birds will come into the house. 

 The chickadees always come into the woodshed when the door 

 is left open, and there they search the woodpile for borers. 

 One bird came several times to take from the hand a borer that 

 was held out to him. We have had about the house at different 

 times, flocks of from thirty to fifty j uncos and tree sparrows, 

 many jays and chickadees, and one or two pairs of nuthatches 

 of both the common species; while flickers, kinglets, creepers, 

 cross-bills, robins, quail, and pheasants come in greater or less 

 numbers. In 1903-04 two fox sparrows stayed all winter, and 

 this year a towhee or chewink is still with us. Myrtle war- 

 blers and meadow larks are commonly seen, and one season a 

 pine warbler came in January. Their presence gives a healthy 

 stimulus to observation and serves to break the monotony of 

 winter isolation upon the farm, while as one result of it our 

 trees are seen all summer in full foliage and never suffer se- 

 riously from the attacks of insects. The sparrows also help 

 by eating most of the weed seed in the garden. 



