9^4 Rural School Leaflet. 



go south when cold weather comes. Why? Doubtless you will say 

 because it is cold, but birds are warmly clothed. They go south because 

 they cannot get food in the north in winter. The birds that stay 

 north are able to get some insects under the bark of trees and they eat 

 the seeds of weeds and what grain they can pick up. 



Many persons go long distances to study birds but the better way is 

 to try to coax the birds to come to you. Many of them have a social 

 nature and as soon as they find that localities are safe they seem glad to 

 live among people in order to have their protection. Some of the most 

 attractive of our birds will build in bird houses in our gardens. It is 

 unfortunate that we have not yet sufficiently controlled the cats about 

 our premises. Often birds having confidence sometimes fall into a more 

 serious danger than they would by staying in woodland places. There 

 are too many cats. This should be rememberecd. Not enough effort 

 has been made to keep them away from the birds. 



In winter time we often call birds to our gardens and schoolyards by 

 giving them food. Many birds die in the winter time because they can- 

 not get enough to eat or drink. Therefore, on all the school grounds 

 as well as on the home grounds a dinner should be given occasionally to 

 the birds. It can be prepared as a Christmas tree and kept filled with 

 gifts during the school year. Many birds will visit a tree on which some 

 food has been placed. Do not be discouraged if the birds do not find 

 out when the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is ready. After they 

 once find it, you will be surprised to learn how frequently they will come 

 into your garden. The following suggestions given by Neltje Blanchan 

 in "How to Attract the Birds" will help you in preparing food for insect- 

 eating and seed-eating birds: 



"Birds can endure intense cold on full stomachs, but their winter larder must 

 often be very lean. Never is hospitality so keenly appreciated as then; never are 

 birds so welcome to us. Trimmings of beefsteak, lumps of suet, and a rind of 

 pork tied on the branches of trees near enough to the home to be watched by its 

 inmates, attract some very interesting winter neighbors : Chickadees, nuthatches, 

 tufted titmice, brown creepers, woodpeckers and blue jays. Minced raw meat, 

 waste canary, hemp and sunflower seed, buckwheat, cracked oats and corn, crumbs 

 and the sweepings from the hay loft, scattered over the ground, make a delectable 

 hash for feathered boarders with varied appetites. Food that can be put in dishes 

 on piazza roofs or on shelves in trees either winter or summer for such soft-billed 

 birds as robins, catbirds, mocking birds, thrushes and orioles — the most delightful 

 and tuneful of bird neighbors — is made of equal parts of cornmeal, pie-meal and 

 German moss into which enough molasses and melted suet or lard have been stirred 

 to make a thick batter. If this mixture is fried for half an hour, it can be packed 

 away in jars and will keep for weeks. Grated carrot or minced apple is a welcome 

 addition." 



