60 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
‘Tt is a mistake to make bird-houses too large, or to have 
many rooms in them, unless you are hoping to attract 
Purple Martins, who like to live in colonies. Birds like 
a whole building to themselves quite as well as people, 
and they do not like people to come too close and peep in 
at their windows and doors, either. 
‘‘Autumn and winter are the best seasons for making 
and placing bird-boxes; it gives time for them to become 
‘weathered’ before nesting time, and birds are apt to be 
suspicious of anything that looks too new and fine, and 
I have a plan that I think you will like by which you boys 
can not only make bird-houses for your own yards and 
farms, but make them to sell to others as well. 
“Tt is also a kind act for those who live on farms to leave 
a few stacks of cornstalks or a sheaf of rye standing in a 
fence corner as a shelter for the game-birds, who are often 
driven by cold to burrow in the snow for cover, and, fre- 
quently, when the crust freezes above them, die of starva- 
tion. 
“Doing this is wise as well as kind, for it helps to keep 
alive and increase these valuable food-birds, and makes 
better sport for the farmers in the time when the law 
says they may go a-hunting. 
‘“‘Of course, in every country school even, there are chil- 
dren who do not live on farms, but these can club together 
and do what they can to feed and shelter the birds that 
come about the schoolhouse. You have all seen Goldilocks’ 
lunch-table for feeding the winter birds, and though Sarah 
Barnes would like to have such a one down at the school, 
others perhaps may think it foolish. 
“ As you already know, some birds eat insects and others 
