No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 205 



1 seed of greeiibrier {Smilax herhacea) ; 2 clover leaf- 

 weevils (^Pliytonomus piinctatus) ; bits of carabid, ant and 

 gi'asshopper. Evidently the berries of the bajberrj and 

 snmach were the principal food. These may be found in 

 winter all along the coast region in southern JSTew England. 

 Therefore the food conditions apparently are not unusual in 

 Mr. Hoxsie's vicinity. This shows that the wintering of 

 bluebirds in New England does not depend entirely upon 

 the food supply, as all these food constituents might have 

 been obtained farther north and east than Rhode Island. 

 While the abundance of seeds may have had something to do 

 with the staying of the bluebirds in Rhode Island, the prob- 

 ability is that the bird houses in which they spent the night 

 had a greater influence with them. It is interesting to note 

 that Mr. Hoxsie cleans and paints his bird houses every 

 year. The effect produced does not agree with the statements 

 so often made that paint is obnoxious to birds, and that bird 

 houses should not be cleaned out after the birds have nested. 



Feeding the ^Y^nfe?' Birds. 

 Many people now feed birds in winter. In some neighbor- 

 hoods several neighbors are engaged in this pastime, and in 

 most sections of the State a part of the people are taking 

 up winter feeding. This was a great help to the birds in 

 the severe winter weather of January and February, 1911- 

 12, and they gathered to these feeding places in considerable 

 numbers. Mr. E. M. Pedrick of Beverly writes on March 

 25, 1912, that " since the last snowstorm " he had attracted 

 over 100 tree sparrows with j uncos, grackles, woodpeckers, 

 chickadees and one creeper. Most of the birds, he sajs, come 

 to the Avindow, eat the meat off the bones that are hung up 

 for them, and have learned to be fond of wheat bread, re- 

 maining from early morning until dusk. On the occasion 

 of the first severe storm of the winter a letter by the State 

 Ornithologist was sent out to the press requesting people to 

 feed the birds. A great number of people began such feed- 

 ing at that time and most of them continued it through the 

 severe weather. Had any one realized that the wild fowl 



