The Bird Department 



By A. A. Allen, Ph.D. 

 Assistant Professor of Ornithology, Cornell University 



PLANTING TO ATTRACT BIRDS 



EACH year in the United States it is becoming more 

 and more evident that urgent measures are 

 necessary if we would preserve and increase the 

 remnant of our native birds. While the change of con- 

 ditions concomitant with the clearing of the land and 

 the development of agriculture has undoubtedly aided 

 the increase of a few species like the robin and house 

 sparrow, the great majority of birds have decreased very 

 rapidly. The robin and house sparrow have thriven be- 

 cause their food supply has become more plentiful and 

 they require no more shelter than is afforded by the 

 habitations of man and the few shade trees that he may 

 plant about his dwelling. But most birds require more 

 than this. The clearing of the forest and the woodlot, 

 the mania for cutting down hedgerows and cleaning up 

 all waste land has left the warblers, vireos, thrushes, fly- 

 catchers and many others with no place to retreat, no 

 place to raise their kind. 



It is true that great unbroken stretches of forest are 

 remarkably poor in bird life, but the real deserts exist 

 in the extensive grain fields and the city parks. Between 

 the forest and the grain field, however, there is a mean 

 which is most favorable to bird life, which admits of ex- 

 tensive and intensive agriculture, of cities and their parks, 

 yet includes abundant provision for birds. This is 

 realized in few places today. The problem is one for 

 the forester as well as for the farmer and for the state. 

 More and more we are coming to realize that it is 

 not sufficient merely to forbid the shooting of birds to 

 promote their increase. We must provide a natural food 

 supply and a place for them to nest. In the last number 

 of American Forestry we discussed the problem of the 

 decrease of hole-nesting birds with the growth of modern 

 forestry and the necessity for supplying nesting boxes 

 to replace the natural nesting sites which are fast disap- 

 pearing. The same argument obtains for birds nesting 

 in thickets or cover of any kind. If the country is 

 cleared and no consideration given to the needs of the 

 birds, we must expect a great falling off in their numbers 

 until we have made provision for them. Nor is it suffic- 

 ient merely to set aside pieces of waste land, call them 

 sanctuaries, letting nature take its course and expect 

 these areas soon to supply the whole surrounding country 

 with birds. The sanctuary is a long step in the right 

 direction, be it established by the Government, the com- 

 munity, or the individual, and will probably do more 

 than any other one thing to reestablish our vanishing 

 birds and game. But just as the forest requires care in 

 order to yield profits, so the sanctuary requires an ex- 



penditure of thought and labor to yield birds. The or- 

 dinary city parks are sanctuaries in so far as shooting 

 is prohibited, yet they are usually poorer in bird life than 

 the woodlot, teeming with bird enemies and echoing with 

 the shots of hunters and boys. The reason is not diffi- 

 cult to find. Most parks have been laid out with no 



A WINTER TABLE CLOTH 



Horned larks feeding on the snow. Many horned larks are permanent 

 residents in the northern United States, although a distinct migration 

 occurs during February the lark being the first of the migrant 

 birds to arrive in the northern States. 



thought as to the requirements of birds; they are lacking 

 in some essential. And so will be our sanctuaries, our 

 reservations, our estates, our farms, our back yards, 

 unless we stop to investigate the needs of birds and seek 

 to meet them. This can be accomplished by the plant- 

 ing and suitable arrangement of trees, bushes and vines 

 which supply the best food and the largest number of 

 nesting places. 



PLANTING TO SUPPLY FOOD 



Let us first consider how we may increase the natural 

 food supply. We will omit from consideration at this 

 time the planting of such annuals as millet, sunflowers, 

 buckwheat and kaffir corn which, while of great im- 

 portance about the farm, sanctuary or game reservation, 

 have no direct bearing on the problems of forestry. 

 There are, however, many hardy shrubs and trees known 

 to bear fruit attractive to birds which may well be in- 

 cluded in a general scheme for planting in a sanctuary 

 or in general reforestation. 



The number of birds which depend upon fruits for 



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