282 Wild Bird Guests 



over the country. He thinks it might be well 

 for practically every bird club to include among 

 its objects, "the establishment of a bird sanctu- 

 ary." It would not be necessary in every case 

 to spend a lot of money for special devices to 

 attract the birds; the main thing would be to 

 secure a piece of property, large or small as the 

 case might be, which should be set aside as a 

 refuge; a place where birds would be safe from 

 all their enemies, man included. Care should be 

 taken, when possible, to select a piece of land 

 attractive to a large variety of birds. An al- 

 most ideal place would contain some old forest 

 with both evergreen and deciduous trees and 

 plenty of undergrowth; some old pasture land 

 overgrown with tangles of berry-bearing shrubs 

 and creepers; a grassy meadow, an old orchard, 

 a patch of swamp, a pond, and a good-sized 

 stream. It would seldom be possible to get 

 all these features on one place, but it would 

 often be possible to get several of them. If 

 nest boxes and other devices could be supplied 

 later, so much the better, but the mere posting 

 of it, and the freeing of it from bird enemies 

 would be a fine thing for the local birds and 

 would tend to give permanent value to the club. 

 Then, of course, private individuals, whenever 

 practicable, should make sanctuaries of their 



