CHAPTER XXIV. 

 ENCOURAGING THE PRESENCE OF BIRDS. 



To those who desire the presence of birds, either for the 

 good they do or for love of them, methods for their encour- 

 agement will be of interest. Birds select their habitat with 

 reference to food or nesting privileges. Enemies may drive 

 them away. With this much in mind it is not difficult for one 

 acquainted with bird ways to devise means for attracting them. 

 But in the first place it will be well to introduce evidence to 

 show that birds appreciate conveniences when they find them. 

 W. Ward Fowler ' relates how a neighbor with only two or 

 three acres of land induced fifty-three pairs of birds, exclusive 

 of swallows and martins, to nest there in one month. In the 

 heart of a city the writers know a shrubby garden, closed to 

 cats and boys, which large numbers of birds visit on their 

 migrations. Rare warblers, which many an observer has 

 never seen in that region, visit that spot almost every year. 



That birds visit orchards, out-buildings, and door-yards in 

 winter for such odd bits of food as they may obtain, is well 

 known by all who live in the country. The profit that may 

 be derived from feeding them is not so well known. Mr. E. H. 

 Forbush 2 gives an account of how birds were attracted to an 

 old neglected orchard in the town of Medford, Massachusetts. 

 Its situation was favorable, there being a variety of wild fruit- 

 bearing trees and shrubs, and a small piece of woodland 

 consisting chiefly of pines near by. The orchard was in a 

 dilapidated condition at the start, and for three years efforts 

 in its behalf were limited to pruning the trees and protecting 

 them from the ravages of the canker-worms and tent-cater- 



1 A Year with the Birds, p. 118. 

 'In Bulletin No. 2, Mass. Crop Reports, July, 1895. 

 304 



