208 STORIES OF BIRD LIFE 



I know a gentleman living in a grove about whose house 

 the birds are always abundant. I will tell you his method 

 of keeping them near him. One winter there was a deep 

 snow which lay for a long time upon the ground. At the 

 same time the weather was bitterly cold. The birds suf- 

 fered much for lack of food and hundreds were frozen to 

 death. One day a flicker came into his house through a 

 crack above a side window, and pecked about on the shelves 

 and chairs hunting for something to eat. When the man 

 of the house came into the room the flicker, in an effort to 

 escape, flew against the window and fell fluttering to the 

 casement. The gentleman took the bird in his hands and, 

 finding it to be very poor, knew that it must be almost 

 famished. It then occurred to him that all the other birds 

 must likewise be suffering and maybe the flicker had come 

 to let him know about it. So he at once set about to devise 

 some means of feeding them. 



Taking a short board he nailed it to a tree in his yard 

 in such a way as to make a shelf. On this he sprinkled 

 cracker crumbs which contained some seeds, and a piece of 

 suet, but no salt. Within an hour a chickadee discovered 

 the dinner on the board and at once helped himself. . Soon 

 a pair of hungry nuthatches were on the spot. The news 

 spread rapidly and day by day the good man had the 

 pleasure of watching many kinds of little feathered people 



