266 Bird- Lore 



wall. Stone gate-posts and a rustic gate at the entrance on the highway. 

 A bungalow for the caretaker, wherein there shall be a room for the meet- 

 ings of the Society's Executive Committee and Board. A tool- and work- 

 shop of corresponding style. Several rustic shel ers and many seats. 



The assembling of the various springs into a pond, so designed as to make 

 an island of a place where the Redwings nest. 



Trails to be cut through the brush and the turf grass, in a charming bit of 

 old orchard on the hill-top, to be restored for the benefit of worm-pulling Robins. 



Several stone basins to be constructed for bird- baths, houses to be put up of 

 all sorts, from Wren boxes, von Berlepsch model. Flicker and Owl boxes, to a 

 Martin hotel; and, lastly, the supplementing of the natural growth by planting 

 pines, spruce, and hemlocks for windbreaks, and mountain ash, mulberries, 

 sweet cherries, flowering shrubs and vines for berries and Hummingbird honey. 



The various estimates for the proper doing of the work accompanied the 

 list, which was promptly returned with "O. K., begin at once" written across it. 

 Immediately the work began with the cat-proof fence. 



As the scheme became known, there were many queries as to the suita- 

 bility of the spot for bird homes. The casual observer, for some occult reason, 

 associates the deep woods with bird life, when, in reality, aside from birds of 

 prey and perhaps a dozen species beside, the great bulk of song birds prefer 

 open or partly brushed fields edged by tall trees, with water close at hand, and 

 not too far from human habitations; for, in spite of everything, they seem 

 instinctively to trust to man rather than to their wild enemies. Such a spot 

 was Birdcraft, even before the protecting fence of wire-netting, capped by 

 spreading arms with barbed claws, was built about it. 



The bird-sown trees, shrubs, and plants listed during the summer of 

 preparation were as follows: Red, white and pin oaks, red cedar, mulberry, 

 several hundred bird cherry trees, ungrafted sweet cherries, high and low 

 bush blackberries, dewberries, thimble berries, strawberries, huckleberries 

 and blueberries, black and red chokeberries; staghorn and glabrous sumachs, 

 Virginia creeper, wild grapes of three species, bayberry, wild plum, shad bush, 

 wild smilax of two species (Mowhawk briar), elderberries, prickly pear, three 

 species of wild roses, sweetbrier, great clumps of the alder bushes haunted 

 by Song Sparrows in late winter and early spring for their sweet cone seeds, and, 

 last, meshing everything with its half-evergreen vines, were masses of Japanese 

 honeysuckle, seeming to thrive even upon the thin soil between the rock ledges. 



Trail-making was the first actual work done on the land itself. This 

 required skill in knowing what not to do, and in keeping the lay of the land in 

 mind, so that the paths would have meaning, and not simply intersect the 

 place at regular intervals like the plotting out of city lots. Cow-paths are 

 usualh' safe guides, — they always lead either to or from something and never 

 turn abruptly. So, keeping this in mind, The Commuter, who knew the old 

 pasture well, and our County Game Warden, evolved a sort of game of "fol- 



