Reynolds] WHAT BIRDS FEED ON l\ WINT1 



The shrubs must begin with another roadside dweller, and it 

 is the queen of them, for the birds love its berri< The 



poke, pocoon of the Indians. Pigeon berry was, also, one i 



names. Alas! The beautiful wild pigeon, and innoo 



that once migrated in immense flocks have departed, raev« 



return. This handsome plant comes up every year, and can 

 not be called a shrub. It attracts even- one's admiration, 

 the berries are ripe. The wine colored, stately stalk, tl • 

 veined leaves, the dark, red berries, all seem to be stained with 

 port wine, the heavily-hanging clusters of berries of rich dark red 

 look like the raeemes.of currants. How the birds rejoice n: I 

 delicious wine berries — even the woodpeckers — insect eaters 

 enjoy them. Mocking birds, robins, every bird comes, so that 

 long before winter comes, they are gone. There is no tomorrow 

 in a bird's little life. 



There are four other bushes with red berries. Were they made 

 to attract the birds? The black alder, spice wood, and the two 

 burning bushes. The black alder, or winter berry is strikingly 

 beautiful, the most brilliant of all the red berries. There are 

 hundreds of shining, scarlet berries, growing just as close, as 

 possible to the branches, and the color does not change with the 

 frost, as the other berries do, but remain bright until the spring. 

 They are brought to the cities, and it seems a pity that such a 

 lovely bush should be destroyed, as it is a slow grower, and belongs 

 to the birds. The spicewood, whose fragrant wood grows only 

 in Canada, and the United States, seems some form of a tropical 

 plant in our climate. I have seen the allspice in Jamaica, and 

 the berries grow in the same way, that is, the seed inside a red 

 covering, that is soft, and then becomes hard. Its long, crimson 

 berries are prettier, more odd looking, but grow more sparcely 

 along the branches, as the coffee berry grows. The burning bush, 

 — euonymus, or best — is more attractive to birds than any bush, 

 except the poke. Every bird lover should plant some of these 

 pretty little trees, because they are magnets to draw all the little. 

 hungry, creatures. The red birds come from far and near, 

 the blue birds flutter over it in flocks, sparrows and robins a one and 

 feast. There is no brighter scene, than this brilliant bush a •• 

 with its lovely pink and red berries, with a flock of birds, flying 

 over it, hanging on, chirping their delight at their wayside inn. 

 The berries are three crimson seeds in an outer shell of pink; 



