OUR ALLIES 161 



will feed flock after flock of birds of passage, all 

 through the later autumn. 



This matter of winter food must not be passed 

 by lightly, for we can easily induce a large number 

 of birds to spend the coldest months around our 

 Northern homes. When they are not picking at the 

 bones which we hang for them outside our windows, 

 they will destroy myriads of the eggs of vermin, 

 hidden under the bark of our fruit trees. 



A very careful observer tells us that a single pair 

 of house wrens will dispose of at least one thousand 

 insects every day and that other birds serve us in 

 about the same ratio. I want you to see this thing 

 in its clearest light, as a matter of domestic economy 

 to cultivate bird friendship. We must gather them 

 about us and protect them, make our homes as pleas- 

 ant to them as to ourselves. Any effort in this di- 

 rection will be quickly appreciated, and the word will 

 pass around among the tribes, until the wilder sorts 

 come in and domesticate themselves. 



My Clinton home is populous with not only robins 

 and catbirds, but grosbeaks and indigo birds, and 

 purple finches and tanagers, and of late the wood 

 thrush and the Wilson's thrush have come to nest 

 close by my house singing in the shrubbery, with 

 those long, silvery, echoing notes that a few years 

 ago were heard only from the distant forest. 



There are, however, two sides to this question, and 

 I have fairly developed the opposite side in my chap- 

 ter on Our Rivals. Some of my friends insist that 



