A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

 DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ Of the Audubon SociETicm 



Vol. IX March — April, 1907 No. 2 



The House Finch from an Office Window 



By W. H. BERGTOLD, Denver, Colo. 



MANY a bird-lover laments, because, in the rush of his busy life, there 

 is not more leisure to spend in the meadows, and forests, whither 

 his bird friends constantly call. Probably he never dreams of study- 

 ing live birds while at his office desk. We, however, who live in the towns 

 and cities west of Kansas, have a charming bird with us always, right at our 

 office windows, which, if it be given the smallest encouragement, is an 

 unfailing associate and visitor, namely, the House Finch. 



The House Finch is quite different, in habits, from its cousin of the East, 

 the Purple Finch : it prefers to build in and about the haunts of man, on the 

 points of vantage on houses and other buildings, and is perfectly at home 

 on the large buildings in the center of a large busy city, remaining with us 

 in the city the year round, and singing with sweetness and vigor all the 

 warmer months, it even bursts into song on bright and warm days during 

 the winter. This bird is a favorite with every one in Denver, and many 

 people feed it during the colder months, but, strange as it may seem to our 

 Eastern friends, the matter of drinking-water is a question more difficult 

 for the Finch to solve in cold weather than is that of food. In this dry 

 climate, where it scarcely ever rains in the winter, a season when at most 

 there is but scant precipitation which usually dries promptly, the Finches 

 find very little water left in the streets, on the roofs, or in the eave drains, 

 and, too, this little is very often frozen, pressing the birds hard to find a 

 drinking place. 



The writer has, for some years past, kept a shallow pan filled with water, 

 fastened to one of his office window-sills; this office is in a building located 

 in the heart of Denver, surrounded by other high structures, and on the 

 top (fifth) floor, the windows facing south and west. During freezing 

 weather this pan is kept thawed with hot water; the Finches come to this 

 little drinking-dish by dozens and dozens every day in the year, and chatter 

 and dispute over precedence in taking a drink, like any diplomat at a presi- 

 dential reception. . Those about this office have learned that the quietly 



