ENCOURAGING BIRDS AROUND THE HOME 
By FREDERICK H. KENNARD 
OW that our country has really 
awakened to the importance of 
bird life to the citizens, and at 
last enacted some very wise legislation, 
forbidding the killing of migratory and 
insectivorous birds, putting migratory 
game birds under Federal control, and 
forbidding the importation of plumage 
from abroad, public interest in birds and 
their great economic value seems to have 
been stirred as never before. 
Birds come north for the very special 
purpose of finding a proper place for the 
rearing of their young, and, this task ac- 
complished, as autumn approaches, soon 
depart in search of areas where there 
will be throughout the winter plenty of 
food and cover and a more congenial 
climate. 
If we want to make our homes at- 
tractive to birds, we must always keep 
the above facts in mind. If in summer 
we want to attract the migrants from the 
South, as well as the permanent resi- 
dents, we must furnish them with proper 
places for the rearing of their young, 
which should include not only nesting 
sites, but cover, food, and water; and if 
in winter we want to keep some of the 
permanent residents about our homes 
and attract migrants from the North, we 
must remember that they are again in 
search of food and cover. 
Once having attracted the birds, a 
sharp lookout must be kept in order to 
protect them from their enemies—cats, 
bird-hunting dogs, red squirrels, skunks, 
foxes, and other predatory animals (not 
forgetting the small boy that used to be 
ubiquitous), English sparrows, horned 
owls, and sometimes crows and _ jays, 
cooper and sharp-shinned hawks, and 
last, but not least, the black snake. 
HOW TO ATTRACT THE BIRDS 
To sum up, if we are to attract birds in 
summer, we must furnish them with 
proper nesting sites, cover, food, and also 
water; and if we want to keep them in 
winter, we must again furnish them with 
cover and food, and always protect them 
from their enemies. 
The most important factor in attract- 
ing birds is the supplying of cover suit- 
able for their wants. With this properly 
done, except in the case of birds that 
nest about buildings or in holes, nature 
will supply the nesting sites, as well as 
take care of the food supply, except in 
winter. 
At “The Pines,’ my place in Newton 
Center, Mass., we have had for eight 
years under close observation about 44 
acres, comprising three acres of lawn 
dotted with a few old apple trees, six 
acres of wet meadow, which are allowed 
to grow up with tussocks of grass, cedars, 
alders, wild roses, and the like, and the 
remaining 35 acres divided into two areas 
of about equal size. The first of these 
areas, that about the house, is covered 
with a growth of pines, hemlocks, ce- 
dars, birches, and various other deciduous 
trees, among which we have taken pains 
to cultivate suitable coppice and under- 
growth, while the second area, covered 
with deciduous woods, is, on account of 
a fire that ran through it a number of 
years ago, almost devoid of the smaller 
evergreens or protecting coppice and un- 
dergrowth (see pages 162 and 163). 
In the first of these areas (page 162) 
some thirty different species of birds 
breed nearly every year, while in the sec- 
ond area only from three to five different 
species build their nests. 
Almost every one who lives in the 
country can do something in the way of 
attractive planting about his house and 
grounds, and even in the more closely 
settled suburbs almost every place, no 
matter how small, can by judicious plant- 
ing be made attractive to birds. Even a 
back yard may in its limited way, with 
proper treatment, be made a regular ren- 
dezvous for birds in the vicinity. 
160 
