How to Attract the Birds 



ferent birds are on this Hst — we must not forget the 

 horned lark, chewink, bhickbirds, cowbird, grackles, 

 meadow-lark, bobolink, ruffed grouse. Bob White, 

 and the mourning dove. 



Even the most sluggish birds — and some of the 

 finch tribe have a reputation for being that — are fast 

 livers compared with men. Their hearts beat twice 

 as fast as ours ; we should be feverish were our blood 

 less hot; therefore, the quantity of food required to 

 sustain such high vitality, especially in winter, is 

 relatively enormous. A tree sparrow will eat one 

 hundred seeds of pigeon-grass at a single meal, and 

 a snowflake, observed in a Massachusetts garden one 

 February morning, picked up over a thousand seeds 

 of pigweed for breakfast. 



BUSINESS CO-PARTNERSHIPS 



In view of the enormous amount of work certain 

 birds are capable of doing for the farmers, how many 

 take any pains to secure their free services continu- 

 ously ; to get help from them as well as from the 

 spraying machine and insect powder on which so 

 much time and money are spent annually? The 

 truth is that very few farmers indeed realize the true 

 situation ; therefore the intelligent, the obvious thing 

 to be done is generally neglected. 



One of the most successful fruit-growers in Geor- 

 gia, whose luxuriant orchard and luscious peaches are 

 famous throughout the market, entered some time 

 ago into a systematic, business-like understanding 

 with a number of birds whose special appetites for 

 special insect pests make them invaluable partners. 



i88 



