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Bird - Lore 



At first, millet and canary seed were put in a can on the top of the pyramid 

 and buried in the snow with only the top in sight. Whenever I made 

 pictures I removed the can, filled up the hole with snow, and made a new open- 

 ing filled with seed. The opening was not more than 2 inches across, and I 

 was thus enabled to get the birds to come to a small area rather than feed over 

 a broad surface. To avoid getting them behind the feeding opening, I made a 

 snow-back high enough to force them to eat from the side. I also preferred 

 to have them on the left of the opening in the afternoons, so a small pigweed 

 kept them away from the right side. Birds are usually careless in their table 

 manners and scatter seed about in a rather reckless manner. To prevent their 

 spending too much time picking up crumbs, I used to cover all the loose seed 

 with fine snow, to force them to feed in the proper place. While the Tree 



Sparrows and Juncos were not 

 new to the camera, I used to try 

 to get them in different poses 

 while I was waiting for the Red- 

 polls to come. 



Speaking of the Redpolls, 

 they were early in the field. 

 From the port-holes I could see 

 them feeding on the pigweeds 

 that grew so abundantly all 

 around the blind. Seeing them 

 eat from divers pigweeds and 

 seeing them eat from some par- 

 ticular spot on a snow pyramid 

 proved to be two distinct obser- 

 vations. They did not care for 

 millet or any patent form of 

 bird-food. They were the origi- 

 nal consumers of pigweed seed, 

 apparently, and they proposed 

 to stand by this abundant and 

 nourishing diet. When they 

 wouldn't come to the seed I had 

 selected I was forced to com- 

 promise. This I did by selecting 

 the most vigorous and stately 

 pigweeds that the farm afforded 

 and sticking them over the 

 snow pyramid. The pyramid 

 began to take on the appearance 

 TREE SPARROW of 3- mouster pin-cushion. For a 



