How to Attract the Birds 



have got ahead of the mowing machine. Large 

 companies of feeders must necessarily be rovers. 

 Now, flocks of slate-colored juncos appear among the 

 late asters and goldenrod by the waysides. Hosts 

 of old friends come back to us every day; some new 

 acquaintances may turn up at any hour. 



High up in the air, sometimes a mile or more 

 above the earth, if the weather be clear, travel flocks 

 of migrants where they can obtain a bird's-eye view 

 of the country to be traversed. Geese have been 

 detected four miles high. Rivers running like silver 



threads across the 

 map, mountain 

 ranges, valleys, and 

 the seacoast line, 

 must be far more 

 familiar to the birds 

 that follow them sys- 

 tematically than to 

 Macaulay's school- 

 boy. Only large, 

 strong, or coura- 

 geous birds dare 

 travel in broad day- 

 light. A mellow 

 honk, honk from the 

 veteran leader of a 

 wedge-shaped flock 

 of wild geese will 

 be answered all 

 along the ranks by 



Young Bluebird resting for refreshments after j^|g luStV folloWCrS 

 wing practice. A candidate for a personally . 



conducted excursion next November l^St any Straggler 



158 



