The Audubon Societies 



73 



to the winter birds that roost in the impen- 

 etrable lattice. And as for the vine as a 

 breeding haunt I have found in various 

 seasons the Robin, Catbird, Yellow War- 

 bler, Song Sparrow, Rosebreast, Chippy, 

 Wood Thrush, Maryland Yellow-Throat, 

 Thrasher, Towhee, Indigo Bird and Field 

 Sparrow nesting in my honeysuckles, some of 

 which are near the house or in the garden, 

 while that chosen by Rosebreast and 

 Thrasher was an old resident that had ap- 

 propriated a tangle of briars and pea brush. 

 By all means plant hedges and vines, espe- 

 cially honeysuckles. Many people dislike 

 evergreens of all kinds, considering them 

 gloomy in appearance and shutters out of 

 air. That they are wind-breaks is certain, 

 hence their value. What promises warmer 

 shelter from a storm of sleet and snow than 

 an arborvitae hedge ? What offers a better 

 retreat to the Grosbeak, Crossbill, Pine 

 Siskin, Brown Creeper and other winter 

 birds than a finely-grown group of white 

 spruces ? Here are shelter and food at once, 

 the sweetest of meat tucked away between 

 the scales of the spruce cones. Of a snowy 

 morning what more cheery sight than these 

 same spruces standing green and brave 

 above the whiteness, while the Crossbills 

 shell the cones with that peculiar rustling 

 sound and call and whisper over the break- 

 fast ? 



By all means plant evergreens in hedges 

 and groups, and do not trim them into the 

 shape of those top-heavy trees found in the 

 Noah's Ark of your youth unless you your- 

 self are willing to wear the costume the toy 

 maker gave Shem, Ham and Japhet, to 

 keep them company. The question of 

 planting wild fruits to divert the birds' 

 appetite from cultivated crops, as well as the 

 matter of the various foods to be issued as 

 rations in time of need, have brought out 

 many interesting and instructive papers, 

 though some of them are rather misleading 

 and complicated. 



The difficulty about the general use of 

 wild fruits as a counter attraction to the 

 garden is that the garden varieties of a 

 species come into bearing first, though in a 

 succession the tame may overlap the wild. 

 A robin will hardly leave a tree of 



luscious garden cherries for the less attrac- 

 tive thimbleberries of the wild hedge. 

 Then, too, there are several wild fruits of 

 an undoubted attraction in luring birds that 

 have in themselves bad qualities for neigh- 

 bors. The black wild cherry, Prunus <vir- 

 giniana, that is found in bearing in 

 Southern New England in all sizes from a 

 bush to a sizable tree, is sure to be the 

 gathering point for the fruit-eating flocks 

 of midsummer and early autumn, and I 

 harbor a tree of this species in full view of 

 my garden house. The tree was there first 

 and I respect its priority, and many inter- 

 esting scenes of bird life have been enacted 

 in it, but I would never advise the planting 

 of the species for two reasons : It is a chosen 

 breeding-place of the tent caterpillar, and 

 this scourge may be seen traveling over the 

 country and spreading from orchard to 

 orchard via the wild cherry; and, secondly, 

 the tree branches in a withered state are in 

 the ranks of "plants poisonous to cattle." 

 And if for the sake of the birds these cher- 

 ries are miscellaneously planted along by- 

 ways and pasture fences and cattle nibble 

 the windbroken branches, the drying up of 

 milk and often death is the result of this 

 cherry's toxic qualities. As for bird rations, 

 bones, suet, bread, seeds, nuts, etc., all have 

 their place, but I have found a universal food 

 for all seasons and for both seed- and insect- 

 eating birds, Spratt's dog and puppy bis- 

 cuits! I say that I found it? No, the 

 birds found it for themselves and three years 

 ago first drew my attention by the way in 

 which they flocked about the kennels where 

 the bits and crumbs were swept out and 

 trodden into the gravel. The biscuits are 

 compounded of meat scraps, coarse grain 

 and beet fibre, and each bird selects what 

 it needs. 



In spring I have seen Redstarts, Myrtle 

 and Chestnut-sided Warblers picking up 

 this kennel dust close by my window, 

 half biscuits tied to trees attract Wood- 

 peckers, Nuthatches, Chickadees and Creep- 

 ers. The finely-powdered fragments spread 

 on a shed and in the crevices of some flat 

 rocks in the old pasture are eaten freely by 

 Meadowlarks, and only yesterday I saw a 

 Blue Jay carrying small bits from a puppy's 



