48 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 



then summer residents reenforced the ranks thinned by 

 the onward passage of the migrants. Both quail and 

 ruffed grouse have come to feed in places where food 

 has been placed for them in suitable places by other 

 residents of this town. What I have just related refers 

 to the winter of 1895 and 1896, before the English 

 sparrow invaded my premises. Since that time the 

 birds have decreased in number, but not in species, 

 because of necessarily changed conditions, for I have 

 been obliged to deal with that disconcerting factor in 

 some measure ever since the above date. 



" I will not particularize the different food for differ- 

 ent birds, but say generally, those living largely upon 

 larvae of insects all take the suet. The pine grosbeaks 

 would never eat anything but seeds of maple and ash, 

 often digging them from the frozen ground. The 

 purple finches preferred to everything else the hemp 

 seed; next, the sunflower seed. 1 The other seed-eaters 

 will take corn, suet, nuts, and bread. In the summer 

 much soaked bread is carried and fed to young, and 

 the robins and orioles, song sparrows, and chipping 

 sparrows are fond of it. Wheat bread grows so hard 

 when frozen that in winter I use bread made of two- 

 thirds corn meal and one-third wheat. This crumbles 

 so fine that freezing makes less difference. But all 

 prefer the wheat bread. 



" When we have a thaw in winter my flock disperses 



1 1 have observed large flocks of purple finches feed on the seeds of 

 burdock in spring. The birds picked the seeds from the ground and 

 stayed from one to two weeks in the same locality. [AUTHOR. 



