MISCELLANEOUS 63 



In wild and unsettled districts I have often found the 

 dust baths of native sparrows in dry, sunny places on 

 old unused lumber roads. 



Nearly all birds, excepting, I believe, the birds of 

 prey, swallow pieces of gravel or grit. Aquatic birds, 

 shore birds, and seed-eaters are evidently most in need 

 of it. I have seen the house sparrow pick gravel from 

 the ice and snow on city sidewalks, when the tempera- 

 ture was about zero, and once on a warm August 

 evening I observed a flock of about three hundred 

 blackbirds picking up a dessert of gravel after they 

 had returned from their field feeding grounds and just 

 before they retired to roost in the rushes. Some gravel 

 should, therefore, be placed near all feeding places. 



The egg shells of birds consist of lime which the 

 birds take into their bodies with food or water. In 

 the egg-laying season the body's demand for lime is 

 so great that domestic birds will eat bits of marble, 

 limestone, crushed oyster and clam shells, and the 

 shells of their own eggs. It is quite likely that wild 

 birds also need an extra amount of lime in spring, and 

 I would suggest that it be scattered in bits as large as 

 ground coffee near their feeding places. Crushed 

 burnt bones and crushed egg shells will probably 

 answer the purpose very well, and can be prepared 

 by everybody. 



See: Liebe. Futterpliitze fur Vogel im Winter. Theodore Hoff- 

 mann, Gera, Germany. 



Borggreve. Die Vogelschutzfrage. Hugo Voigt, Leipsic, 

 Germany. 



