BIRDS & 
for the hummers, and several came each day to banquet 
there. The most exquisite bit of bird life I have ever 
seen was that of a little mother hummer teaching her 
tiny twins to feed at those golden horns - of - plenty. 
Across the brook in an evergreen glade we wan- 
dered in the early evening and list- 
ened to the bells of the wood 
thrush ringing in one of its tow- 
ers. His exclusive cousin, the her- 
mit, never graced the glade with his 
ventriloquial music, but in the ear- 
ly days when the cottage was 
new and the evergreens stood at the 
edge of a forest, his rare voice was 
often heard. There was no need of 
a bird garden then, for Nature 
cared for all the birds around 
the little gray house; only the 
advance of civilization necessitated 
the provision of food and shelter in 
order to keep them there. 
The darden was almost as 
attractive in winter as in summer 
and it was quite as interesting. The scarlet berries 
of the bittersweet, black alder, and the barberry 
mingled with the black fruit of the sheepberry, making 
a pleasing picture in the snow; when a host of chickadees 
and nuthatches came to feast on them, the hedge became 
a thing of beauty. Chinese Christmas berry, arrow~ 
wood, Japanese silver thorn, mountain ash, woodbine and 
Page Five 
