For December. 1123 



301 



and shelter in times of stress ; these should be put out 

 now. The feeding sheUers should be kept stocked the 

 year round so that the birds will know that they can al- 

 ways rind the food they require, and shelter at a given 

 place. I am satisfied that my great success in attracting 

 the song birds around beautiful "Bird Lodge,'' my home 

 on the Kankakee River, is due to the fact that our song 

 birds know that they can always find food, shelter, and 

 protection from their enemies at all times. I can actually 

 predict the approach of a storm twenty-four hours in ad- 

 vance by the number of strange song birds that fly into 

 our grounds for food and shelter. 



Now, it stands to reason that a bird is going to build 

 where it can find nesting material most easily ; therefore, 

 this should be furnished them. It consists of string and 

 twine cut into six-inch lengths and old gunny or potato 

 sacks cut into six-inch squares. This material should be 

 fastened securelv on the inside of the shelters so it will 



i.- 



iriiilc Bellied S\!.-aUozi' House 

 Sun ken (ianleu 



the 



always be ready. The birds love to pull this out and 

 weave it into their nests. It is also a good idea to tack 

 these squares up in difierent places on the grounds out 

 of sight of the human eye, but where the birds will readily 

 find them. Pans of mud should be furnished for the birds 

 that wish to cement their nests together. It is very in- 

 teresting to watch them .shove a piece of string down in 

 the mud and then carrv it to their nest and hold it in 

 place until the mud sets. Many of our song birds such 

 as the robin, cardinal, and rose-breasted grosbeak, cat- 

 bird, and brown thrasher cement their nests together with 

 mud. 



liird baths should be put out and supplied with fresh 

 water, as nothing will attract the song birds to vour 

 grounds as much as a number of the right kind of bird 

 baths, placed in different localities where the' birds can 

 always find water to drink and a place to bathe. They 



]M"efer shallow drinking places and are afraid of large 

 bodies of water, but when they become accustomed to 

 seeking water in a given place, they will always go there. 

 .A.nother great attraction for the birds is the planting of 

 trees and shrubs that will provide food in abundance for 

 them and the planting of these beautiful trees and shrubs 

 are really necessary to insure success. I have spent prac- 

 tically a lifetine in selecting and collecting these varieties, 

 which are ju.s; :s hardy and far more beautiful than 



Purt>le Martin House at ''Bird Lodge." 



ordinary shrubs, as they have first the bud, then the 

 flower, and then the fruit. There are so many varieties 

 that they furnish a complete supply of food for the birds, 

 practically the year round. 



After attracting the many song birds to your grounds, 

 protection from their enemies is absolutely necessary, 

 chief of which are the cat, house sparrow (English spar- 

 row), red squirrel, skunk, fox, crow, cooper and sharp 

 shnuied hawk. The cat is the worst enemy, and takes an 

 awful toll from our song birds. It is a fact that every 

 cat will catch at least fifty song birds a year. At our last 

 census there were 185,000 farms in the state of Illinois 

 and our census recorded the fact that every one of those 

 farms support a cat ; some of them have many. On one 

 farm fourteen were counted. For the sake of argument 

 let us admit that every farm in Illinois has a cat, allow- 

 ing that the cat only catches fifty birds a year, which is 

 conservative. This amounts to nearly ten million song 

 birds caught in the State of Illinois alone, and this does 

 not include cats in cities and towns. There are more 

 cats in the eastern states than out here. This being the 

 case, is it any wonder that our song birds are decreasing 

 in number? 



Robins are more easily killed than other birds because 

 the>' trust us most. They seem to feel confident that 

 their gratuitous work is so valuable, their song so sweet, 

 and their love for everybody so deep that nobody would 

 want to hurt them ; then all of a sudden the cat's fierce 

 teeth fang its breast, and the bird's surprise is boundless. 

 With a look of conscious agony the bird seems to say, 

 "If I must suffer this strange death, won't some one take 

 my little ones this breakfast which I gathered for them 



