iii8 Rural School Leaflet 



was covered with snow, but throughout the year. During one spring, 

 for instance, a flock of eleven of the rare evening grosbeaks paid 

 daily visits from the first of April until the middle of May, remaining 

 for nearly a month after the time they usually leave for the North. 

 As I write this (the twenty-first day of May), chickadees, downy 

 and hairy woodpeckers, and catbirds are tasting the suet; while song 

 sparrows, white-throated sparrows, chipping sparrows, and cowbirds are 

 scratching among the seeds. Of course there are house sparrows, many 

 of them; but they do not bother the other birds so long as I provide plenty 

 of food. I feel that I can afford to feed them becau.se their chirping 

 attracts other birds to the feast, and I have many more as a result. As 

 for driving the other birds away, my fears have proved groundless, for 

 next to the chickadee the house sparrow has shown himself the biggest 

 coward of the lot, and I have frequently seen a whole flock put to rout 

 by a single nuthatch. 



Whatever type of feeding station is decided on, two things should 

 always be borne in mind: first, once the birds have come to depend on 

 the food supplied, it should not be discontinued for even a few days during 

 the winter when other food is scarce, for they might starve as a result; 

 second, the birds need shelter as well as food, shelter from the weather 

 and from their natural enemies. The Christmas tree at one end of the 

 shelf does very well to shelter the birds while they are feeding ; but if there 

 are no thick trees nor brush piles in the near vicinity into which they 

 can disappear at the approach of a hawk, some such shelter should be 

 created from, five to thirty feet from the feeding station. This can be done 

 by erecting a tepee of poles and evergreen boughs, or by bringing in 

 a pile of brush. Moreover, this will prove a great incentive to the birds 

 to come to the window, as they will hesitate to fly long distances through 

 the open even in order to get to food. If there are no trees at all in 

 the xdcinity of the school, it may be necessary to establish a series of 

 these shelters every fifty feet to the nearest trees. If properly arranged 

 with evergreen boughs there is no need of their being unsightly. An 

 admirable birds' tepee can be made of the poles used for lima beans with 

 the vines attached. This is also a good way of storing the poles over 

 winter. The need of these shelters will be emphasized if there are hawks 

 about. Only yesterday a sharp-shinned hawk swooped down at the 

 birds feeding at my station and made an attempt to catch them. He 

 was unsuccessful only because of the brush pile into which they all darted 

 at his approach. 



As -many chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers as I have ever 

 seen at a feeding station were assembled at one maintained on a balcony. 

 There was but one tree within five hundred feet, and the only shelter 



