BIRDS ABOUT FERN COTTAGB 



William C. Horton, Brattleboro 



I have three bird houses on posts about twenty-five feet 

 from the ground ; one of them is the "Castle," where the purple 

 martins had their home many years up to 1903. A few small 

 houses and boxes are placed in diiTerent places for the birds 

 to nest in. The winter bird feeding places are small boxes 

 and small houses placed on the side of the butternut tree, and 

 a shelf at the dining-room window with four tin cups about 

 one inch deep fastened to it. On the ground between the 

 window and the butternut tree is placed a box with two sides 

 made like a chicken coop, three by three and one-half feet 

 high. This is for the birds to feed under during a snow storm. 

 The downy woodpeckers and white-breasted nuthatches are 

 at the feeding places the year round. 



The tree sparrows begin to come in October. I generally 

 have thirty-five to forty constantly on the feeding places. 

 They begin to mate in April and while mating they sing a 

 beautiful, sweet love song. The first of May they leave for 

 their summer homes in the north. Last winter I had at the 

 feeding places six chickadees, four downy and two hairy 

 woodpeckers, four white-breasted nuthatches, thirty-five to 

 forty tree sparrows, eight blue jays and several juncos. Oc- 

 casionally a flock of pine siskins and goldfinches come to the 

 black birch tree over the summer house to feed on the cat- 

 kins. This fall (October 16, 1910), a flock of fifty or more 

 pine siskins came onto the birch tree. They only stopped for 

 a short time. I find these birds erratic in their movements. 

 Several times the white-winged crossbills have visited this 

 same birch tree. They have not been here for two years. A 

 year ago last winter I had a song sparrow and two white- 

 throated sparrows on the feeding places all winter. 



I keep something on the feeding places all the year, gen- 

 erally beef suet on the tree. I begin to put out seeds in 

 October. I use millet and Hungarian grass seed for the 

 sparrows and juncos, beef suet fastened to the butternut tree 

 for the woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and brown creep- 



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