Supplement to 



Home H^ature = Stubip Course 



Published by the College of Agriculture of Cornell University, 

 in October, December, February and April and Entered October 

 X, igo4, at Ithaca, New York, as Second-class Matter, under 

 Act of Congress of July i6, 1894. 



ANNA BOTSFORD COMSTOCK, Editor 



New Series. Vol. II. ITHACA, N. Y., DECEMBER-JANUARY, 1905-6 No. 2 



BIRD STUDY 



FOUR BIRDS THAT WILL GLADLY ACCEPT AN INVI- 

 TATION TO CHRISTMAS DINNER 



HE farmer and the horticulturist have finally 

 learned that hospitality is a good investment 

 when offered to certain birds. For when 

 these birds are invited to dine they always 

 stay and " help do up the work." The most 

 acceptable dinner to offer them is suet, taking 

 that part of beef fat which is stringy and 

 tough ; they also like fresh fat pork. The most 

 acceptable way to spread the table is to take 

 a strip of the suet or pork about five inches 

 long and about two inches thick, and bind it to one side of a convenient 

 branch of your favorite shade or orchard tree. In binding it the string 

 should be wound around many times, so that it will stay as long as a 

 scrap is left. 



If several pieces of suet be put in the orchard, there will be no need 

 of issuing special invitations to the birds, nor will there be much need 

 of spraying the orchard for pests next spring. The first birds to find 

 the banquet thus spread will soon convey the news to the others, and 

 very soon your premises will be full of happy, little, feathered guests, 

 which will come day after day and look over all your trees very care- 

 fully to find any hibernating insects hidden there. 



Place suet on a tree convenient to watch from your school window 

 and study the following visitors: the downy woodpecker, the nuthatch 

 and the chickadee. 



FRIEND DOWNY 



This is the name which this little bird has earned because of its 

 good work for all of us who are interested in trees. Watch it as it hunts 

 each crack and crevice of the bark for cocoons or insects which are 

 hiding there for the winter, and you will soon be willing to accord it 



7S» 



