How to Attract the Winter Birds About Our Homes 



By EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH. Wareham, Mass. 



TWENTY-NINE years ago I first began feeding the winter birds. 

 In those days no observing boy who roamed the woods in winter 

 could help seeing that Crows, Jays, and Chickadees came, at regular 

 intervals, to feed upon the skinned bodies of foxes and other animals left 

 hanging in the trees by hunters and trappers. So, in the winter of 1876-77, 

 I provided a goodly feast for the birds within sight of my window. 



People have complained to me that the birds would not come to the 

 food provided for them; but when this is the case the fault is usually their 

 own, as they have not gone about feeding the birds in the right way. 

 There is no obstacle to the plan of assembling native birds at feeding 

 places in the city or country, if we except the Sparrow and the cat, both of 

 which must be eliminated to insure signal success. If you wish to attract 

 birds about the house next winter, do not wait until the ground is covered 

 with snow, but begin now. Scatter a little hayseed, from the barn or stable 

 floor, on the bare ground about the yard. Millet or any bird-seed will do 

 as well. Hang some small pieces of suet or beef trimmings on the branches 

 of the trees beyond the reach of dogs and cats. If, at first, these pieces 

 are somewhat widely scattered at points radiating from the house as a center, 

 your success should be assured. Your lures will keep best at this season if 

 tied on the shady side of a tree trunk; but in winter they should be put on 

 the sunny side. They should be well wound to limbs with twine or 

 covered with cellar-wire netting so that neither Jays nor Crows can carry 

 them off bodily. 



You are then ready to attract and hold birds that might otherwise pass 

 on to the South. The birds may not find the food at once, but usually they 

 will find it sooner or later. When the Chickadees have discovered it we 

 are ready for the next move. 



Fresh meat or suet is now put up on the trees nearest the house, to 

 accustom the birds to coming there. Gradually the more distant feeding 

 stations are given up and all the fresh food is put out near the house. 



A block having a slot cut in it to receive the butt of a limb is next 

 nailed up on a window-sill. A branch which will spread over most of the 

 window is then thrust in the slot, so that it stands up in front of the win- 

 dow like a little tree. Suet is the best food to be used here, as elsewhere, 

 for, while it provides the birds with much of the heat and energy they need, 

 they are still obliged to hunt constantly for insect food to secure their daily 

 allowance of protein or muscle-forming material. In this quest they clear 

 the hibernating insects and insects' eggs from our trees and shrubbery. 

 Small pieces of suet are wound on the limb or its twigs so that no one piece 

 is within a foot of any other. If this direction is observed there will be little 



(233) 



