No. 4.] DESTRUCTION OF UIKDS. 501 



When wo once begin feeding bird« in winter, tlierc should 

 be a constant supply, else they may starve when exposed to 

 a cold storm. Those Avho throw food out on the snow and 

 then allow it to become covered with snow and remain so 

 for days had better not feed the birds at all, for they most 

 need to have food provided during (and after) cold snow- 

 storms. If chart', hay seed and cracked grain are put out in 

 open sheds, facing the south, sparrows and snowbirds will 

 always be able to find food. The bobwhites may be readily 

 provided for, and there need be little mortality among them. 

 Mr, Henry J. Duke of Shippenburg, Pa., traps the coveys 

 of quail, after the snow falls, in a coo}) sui)ported by a figure 

 4 or in a set net. He then nails four boards, ten feet long 

 and ten inches wide, together, and places the box so formed 

 on the lawn, covering it lirst with boards and next with corn 

 stover, to keep out the wind, leaving a space a foot wide 

 at one side, which is covered with wire netting to give light 

 and a })lace to feed the birds. The ground beneath the box 

 is strewn with chart", in which grain and seed are mixed. The 

 birds are then put in. Scratching their food out of the chaif 

 gives them exercise, and they are fed and kept in this box 

 until the worst storms of the winter are i)ast. He states 

 that he has thus kept one hundred in a box twelve feet square, 

 and " never lost a bird." * 



Probably trai)ping the birds in this way Avould be con- 

 sidered illegal in this State. A lean-to shelter may be made 

 of old rails and brush, and covered with corn stalks. This 

 need not be more than a few feet from the eround at its 

 highest point. It should slope to the north, and be left open 

 on the south. Food can be thrown under this every few 

 days, or into an old barrel lying on the ground with its open 

 end to the south. Such makeshifts may serve in ordinary 

 winters, but in severe seasons like the one just ended the 

 l)irds must be confined to save many of them. 



The larire, vigorous bobwhite of New England has been 

 exterminated, partly 1)}^ the gunner and partly by the intro- 

 duction of the smaller southern birds, which have interbred 



* Bulletin 10, Divisiou of Zoology, Penusylvania State Department of Agri- 

 culture. 



