Winter Feeding 



By W. L. SKINNER, Proctorsville, Vt. 



With photograph by the author 



BIRD study has in recent years undergone a great change. Formerly 

 the outfit of a bird student was chiefly a shot-gun and a scalpel; today 

 it is the camera, feeding-table, and field-glass. One cannot read Audu- 

 bon without being convinced of the great appreciation and love he had for 

 birds; yet his love for science was even greater, and we regret that the destruc- 

 tion of so much bird life should have seemed necessary. 



Ninety-nine out of every hundred of us interested in birds do not want a 

 bird's stomach cut open to find out just what he has been eating, nor do we 

 care what the formation of bone and muscle may be. These things about a 

 bird we do not love, but we do love beauty of form and color, his song, socia- 

 bility, and intelligence. As birds learn to trust us and feel secure with us, the 

 more strongly are these and other features brought out. For instance, the 

 peculiar squirrel-like habit of the Nuthatch and Chickadee in hiding bits of 

 food in winter-time for future use, searching diligently to find a nook or cranny 

 just to their liking and many other odd items of interest which may be learned 

 only when we become intimate with a bird. 



Suet is used largely as a winter food, and is good so far as it goes; but, at 

 best, it is a substitute for other food. 



The writer lives in a butternut country, and for a number of years has used 

 this nut in feeding birds. It is a rich, nutritious, oily, and, we might say, 

 natural food for winter birds; at any rate, birds will leave suet at any time for 

 butternuts. On account of the Chickadees' habit of storing food, it is better 

 to crack the nut on the side, which makes a lot of fine crumbs; otherwise 

 large quantities will be carried off and hidden. 



A Purple Finch friend of mine would partake of hemp seed, but he was 

 exceedingly fond of butternut. This bird appeared with the Chickadees one 

 morning, and in twenty-four hours had become so tame that he would respond 

 to my whistle by flying into my hand for his favorite food. At times a Chickadee 

 would alight in the same hand. This the Finch would resent by advancing to- 

 ward the Chickadee with open mouth, scolding and using bad language gener- 

 ally. The Chickadee also, with open mouth, would hang on as long as he dared, 

 his body and head thrown back; and the two birds, thus facing each other, 

 presented a ludicrous and most interesting sight. I made one or two snaps 

 with the camera at them but, owing to some one of the uncertainties of photog- 

 raphy, the result was not satisfactory. 



Redpolls would not eat butternut, but four or five of them would crowd 

 into the hand after millet seed. Finding an Acadian Chickadee one day, I 

 I advanced slowly toward him, and held out part of my lunch (a doughnut). 

 He showed the same confidence that his black-capped relative does, and 



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