Birds in Relation to Agriculture in New York State 1807 



food supply they linger much longer than where food is scarce; and, while 

 it is easier to attract the winter birds when food of all kinds is scarce, 

 it is also possible to attract many birds at 

 all seasons of the year. 



Our winter birds are of two kinds — those 

 that feed on insect larvae, pupae, and eggs, 

 which they find in the crevices of bark or drill 

 for in the trunks and branches of trees; and 

 those that feed on seeds and fruits. The 

 former include, among our common birds, the 

 chickadee, nuthatch, downy woodpecker, hairy 

 woodpecker, brown creeper, flicker, and the 

 red-headed and red-bellied woodpeckers in 

 southern parts of the State. The latter include 

 the junco, tree sparrow, homed lark, redpoll, 

 pine and evening grosbeaks, pine siskin, and 

 song sparrow. It is comparatively easy to 

 attract many of these birds about the house 

 and even to a feeding shelf at the window, 

 while chickadees and nuthatches often become 

 so tame that they wHl feed out of one's 



Fig. 



37. — A hairy woodpecker 

 on the window casing 



hand. 



HOW TO ATTRACT BIRDS 



Let us suppose that you wish to have a merry troop of bird visitors 

 passing to and from your dining-room window, where you can watch them 

 diuing the breakfast and the noon hour; that you wish sometimes to open 

 the window and have a confiding chickadee fly in and pick crumbs from 

 the table. Do not expect the birds to come immediately to the window. 

 Begin this fall, or as soon as you read these lines, to fasten pieces of suet, 

 beef fat, or pork rind to the branches and trunks of the trees. The more 

 pieces you put up and the farther from the house you extend the supply, 

 the sooner they will be found by the birds. The quickest returns are 

 brought by fastening the pieces of meat in trees in radiating directions 

 from the window to which you want the birds eventually to come. Then, 

 as soon as one piece of suet is found, the bird that finds it will fly from 

 that piece to another, and so on until it finds the one at the window. This 

 last piece may be fastened to the window casing, or preferably to an ever- 

 green branch fastened to one side of the window. 



As soon as a bird finds a piece of suet it will return again and again, and 

 other birds, seeing this bird, will do likewise, until a whole flock frequents 

 the trees about the house. It is then time to remove the pieces that are 



