134 



Bird - Lore 



pieces of suet or bacon or meat bones to 

 the branches of trees, to satisfy the needs 

 of the smaller birds of the neighborhood. 

 It is probable that the individuals con- 

 cerned in feeding non-game birds out- 

 number those actively distributing food 

 for Quail, but Quail feeding is conducted 

 on a larger scale and by more systematic 

 methods. Thus, during the prevalence 

 of the arctic weather of the present winter, 

 in addition to the many farmers who 

 scattered grain in various places about 

 their farms, game associations, game 

 wardens, rural free-delivery carriers, and 

 other officials, more or less systematically 

 placed Quail food in suitable places. In 

 the District of Columbia, the mounted 

 police, under the order and at the expense 

 of the police department, maintained 

 regular feeding-stations for Quail and 

 other birds. The state game commissioner 

 of Missouri instructed his deputies to 

 feed the Quail while the severe weather 

 lasted, and the expense was charged 

 against the game-protection fund. In 

 Michigan, here and there, rural-delivery 

 carriers scattered grain along their mail- 

 routes. In a few other states similar 

 methods were practised, but, in most, the 

 work was left to the individual unorgan- 

 ized action of farmers and sportsmen. 



"Although more or less feeding of Quail 

 was done in every state where conditions 

 called for it, and although the middle 

 states were particularly active in the 

 matter, yet, without doubt, millions of 

 Quail, to say nothing of other birds, per- 

 ished. So extensive was the territory in- 

 vaded by the Ice King that the localities 

 where birds were fed constituted but a 

 few pin-points in a vast territory, in the 

 rest of which our feathered friends were 

 left to shift for themselves. It is thus 

 apparent that more perfectly organized 

 efforts to save our birds are needed, and 

 I heartily concur in the suggestion con- 

 tained in a recent letter to me from Mr. 

 T. Gilbert Pearson that a central com- 

 mittee, to provide for the winter feeding 

 of birds, should be organized to coordinate 

 the very scattered and disconnected 

 activities that now prevail. I believe, 



further, in the wisdom of a suggestion 

 made by the American Field that a part 

 of the game-protection funds raised by 

 the states through receipts from hunting 

 licenses and penalties might well be applied 

 to the preservation of birds during severe 

 weather, instead of being devoted as now 

 solely to enforcing laws and restocking 

 covers. It is a wiser, as well as a more 

 humane policy to prevent the extermi- 

 nation of our birds, rather than to re- 

 stock the covers depleted by starvation. 



"Besides the obvious advantages of a 

 more thorough covering of the famine 

 territory, which would result from super- 

 vision by a central committee, such a 

 committee would enable the work to be 

 undertaken at an earlier date, and would 

 thus save thousands of birds whose 

 deaths are in too many instances the first 

 cause of directing attention to the need 

 of succor. The New Jersey wardens fed 

 four or five thousand Quail immediately 

 after a heavy fall of snow on December 5, 

 191 1, but in nearly all states no measures 

 of the kind were taken until January, 

 1912. 



"It appears to me that the work could 

 be more eiTectively done by the formation 

 of two committees, — one by the Audubon 

 Societies for the feeding of non-game 

 birds, and the other by the Sportsmen's 

 Associations and state game-warden de- 

 partments for the feeding of game birds. 

 I may add, in conclusion, that the Bi- 

 ological Survey of the Department of 

 Agriculture will be glad to cooperate 

 with such committees so far as lies in its 

 power."— T. G. P. 



Feeding Birds 



On the grounds of the Washington 

 Biologists' Field Club, near Washington, 

 D. C, Dr. A. K. Fisher has long made a 

 point of feeding wild birds which frequent 

 the premises in winter. The accompany- 

 ing photograph shows a Downy Wood- 

 pecker eating the meat from a cocoanut. 

 This unique plan of furnishing a supply of 

 excellent bird food might well be copied 

 by others. 



