BIRD HELPERS IN THE GARDEN 187 



The Song Sparrow 



This bird of "Merry, merry cheer" is of as much use to the garden 

 as to oiu- spirits by his wonderful song. All through the nesting 

 season, the parents are largely insect eaters and the young are fed 

 entirely on insects. The song sparrows are indefatigable parents — 

 they may raise as many as four broods in one season — and all these 

 birds when they are grown, devote themselves during the winter 

 to eating weed seeds, and never attack our berries or fruits. 

 So, from first to last, all simimer and all winter, the song sparrow 

 is the friend of the garden, near which he builds his nest. 



House Wren 



The pugnacious little inhabitants of the wren house we can place 

 at will in the garden. The great point in the wren's favor is 

 that it works near its nest and does not go far afield when foraging. 

 It feeds almost entirely upon insects, being especially fond of cater- 

 pillars, beetles, bugs and spiders and it works most industriously, 

 searching shrubs, plants, \'ines and ever\' nook and comer in fence 

 or wall, for hidden insects. A pair has been found to raise three 

 broods of six each and it requires only a little calculation to 

 estimate the help to a garden of such birds. Every one who makes 

 a garden ought to read in the year book for i goo of the U.S. Dept. 

 of Agriculture in report by Sylvester Judd, the list of no insects 

 brought to the three nestlings, by the parents in one forenoon. 

 The way to have these birds help us is to put up wren boxes arotmd 

 the garden and clean them out at the end of the season so that 

 next year the uTens will find clean boxes ; for they wotild not clean 

 out the twigs and rubbish themselves. 



Chickadee 



While the chickdees devote a large part of their time to search- 

 ing trees for insects and their eggs, during the summer they hunt 

 everywhere for food. Their families are large in numbers and they 

 take insects wherever they can find them. I have seen them hunt- 

 ing the rose bushes for slugs and aphids and the currant bushes for 

 currant worms, and the peonies for any visiting insects. While 

 the chickdee may not naturally be a garden bird, if we put nesting 

 boxes fitted for him in trees near the garden, we can convert his 

 energies into garden protection, with certainty. 



