Arbor and Bird Day Bulletin 13 



Shall not we, then, on the coming Arbor and Bird Day, prepare 

 whatever space, large or small, we may, in private ground, school 

 yard, or public park, and consecrate it, with communal ceremony or 

 personal dedication, as opportunity offers, to the double purpose of 

 conserving the life of the birds and of preserving their friendship 

 and service to man. Governor Lister, in strong and earnest phrase, 

 has set apart that day with this object. Will not every citizan, child 

 or adult, of our state respond heartily, and, in keeping with the oc- 

 casion, do full duty toward protecting the dependent birds? 



The ancient Greeks were nature lovers. Every shrine of their 

 gods was a sanctuary for wild life. Many birds were sacred to one 

 or another of their divinities. Since we have borrowed their word, 

 ornia, as the term whereby we designate the science of bird life, 

 what more fitting than to use- another coinage from the same root to 

 describe the practice of making bird homes, and call each little refuge 

 an orniry? 



So far as you can, give your orniry proper balance of vine and 

 shrub, of briar and tangle. Your pleasure in watching the birds that 

 it shelters will amply repay. If space permits, do not fail to set out 

 mulberry, choke cherry, and mountain ash trees. Add such berry 

 bearing shrubs as elder, dogwood, sumach, currant and honeysuckle. 

 A few barberry bushes around the outer edge, as a hedge, give the 

 timid creatures an additional sense of security. Create a tangle of 

 blackberry, raspberry, wild grape, woodbine, and other sheltering 

 vines. Wherever possible, supply abundance of such seed bearing 

 plants as sunflower particularly dear to finches and chickadees, 

 chickory, lettuce, hemp and millet. Do not forget to delight the 

 hummers with salvia and scarlet runner beans. 



Water, too. Furnish the birds with water, if you can do nothing 

 more. Could you manage some sort of fountain effect, such as a 

 hydrant dripping into a basin on an upturned tile, or a spray falling 

 into a little pool built of rugged stones from the pasture? Perhaps 

 nothing more is possible to some than a plain dish of fresh water on 

 a friendly stump. The birds will not disdain it. Any one of these 

 would be to our winged visitors a favorite feature in your orniry. 

 Possibly you could also manage to erect a bird house or two on 

 poles or trees and thus publish to the whole world, bird and human 

 alike, the spirit and purpose underlying it all. 



He who plants a tree, plants Hope. 

 He who plants a tree, plants Joy. 

 He who plants a tree, plants Peace. 

 He who plants a tree, plants Love. 



Selected. 



