The Audubon Societies 379 



by eating the worms oflF of the crops. The Bob-whites get in a circle, with their 

 heads on the outside. When they see anyone coming, they fly away. 



The Flickers and Woodpeckers save a lot of trees by picking the worms out 

 of them. The people down South do not like the Woodpeckers because they 

 pick holes through the oranges. — ^Helen Bodmer (age lo years), Aldie Graded 

 School, Virginia. 



[Compare the observation that the Mockingbird down South "Sings on a bright, clear 

 morning when ice is on the trees," with the fairly frequent records of its appearance in 

 the North during cold weather. If a favorite food-supply should tempt this species 

 farther north, it would probably adapt itself to the colder climate quickly. 



The Cardinal formerly was found regularly on Long Island, and is at present a 

 familiar resident of Central Park, New York City. The practice of caging this beauti- 

 ful songster used to be quite common, even among kind and intelligent people. In 

 Indiana, for example, the writer remembers meeting a good Christian woman who 

 counted it no wrong to go out in the woods with a cage and capture Cardinals, a prac- 

 tice from which she derived some small gain. The familiar Robin offers many points of 

 interest for study, among which are its feeding-habits during the year as it travels 

 North and South. Will the observer describe the berries on which Robins get "drunk?" 

 —A. H. W.] 



HOME BIRD-STUDY 



I am a boy twelve years old in the fifth grade, and I am very much interested 

 in bird-study and belong to the Junior Audubon class. I am looking at the 

 different kinds of birds every day. I have put up one bird-house, and my 

 brother has put up two. I have seen just one Robin go into my bird-house, and 

 that was on a rainy day. A mother and father bird make a nest in our thorn 

 tree every year. I watch them build their nest every time, and there are two 

 Barn Swallows that make their nest in our barn. They renew their nest a little 

 every year. It is made like a little brick house, and sometimes they both go 

 out together and sometimes the father bird will stay on the nest and let the 

 mother go out. There is a Woodpecker's nest in our apple tree. I was looking 

 at it this morning. It looked like a new nest. I think I have told you enough 

 about birds. I have joined the Boy Scouts and we have a meeting every week. 

 — Clarence Fitzwater, Branchport, N. Y. 



[It is a daily pleasure to feel acquainted with the bird neighbors in one's own grounds, 

 as this observer shows in his description of nesting birds. Barn Swallows are particu- 

 larly attractive to watch during the nesting-season, and, although not as neat builders 

 as some species, no nest is more snug and secure than that of these Swallows. A second 

 brood is reared sometimes in the same nest as the first, after a few repairs in the way of a 

 layer of mud and fresh lining have been added. — A. H. W.] 



