SCHOOL DEPARTMENT 



Edited by MABEL OSGOOD W^RIGHT 



Address all communications to the Editor of the School Department, National 

 Association of Audubon Societies, 141 Broadway, New York City 



THE WINTER-FEEDING AGAIN— BOTH SIDES 

 OF THE QUESTION 



WITH the falling away of the leaves and the outlining of the pond edges 

 with ice, the question of the winter-feeding of the birds comes to the 

 fore. Some of us have continued the practice in a degree all summer, 

 in order not only to keep a few of the least-wandering species in remembrance of 

 their winter haunts, but for the gratification of our personal pleasure of the 

 intimacy, which, if not precisely "Over the Teacups," is something akin in 

 •■delightful informal sociability. 



A few years ago, this matter of winter-feeding was urged as a duty toward the 

 birds, a sort of pa}'ment for their services of song and insect destroying. Now 

 I think that it will be agreed by those who have established a lunch counter 

 with a more or less regular set of customers, that, like many other forms of charity, 

 the really greatest benefit is reflex and falls upon ourselves. 



As to the ways and means of feeding, it may not be amiss to rehearse them, in 

 ■spite of all that has been written upon the subject. 



In general, for the dweller in the open country, or upon the edge of a village 

 with near-by fields reaching through brush lots to the real woodland, there are 

 three classes of birds to be considered: (i) What may be termed "window-sill 

 birds" — those like the Bluebird, Robin, Starling, Tree Sparrow, Chickadee, etc., 

 that may be coaxed to feed almost on the window-ledge itself. (2) The tree-trunk 

 birds, Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, the Brown Creeper, together with the Winter 

 Wren, Kinglet, Myrtle Warbler and Jays, who, though willing to come very close 

 to a house, still prefer to lunch on a tree counter, where they can see all about 

 them. (3) The game birds — Ruffed Grouse and Quail, who must have either 

 •corn-stalk teepes, log hutches or carefully adjusted brush heaps, arranged to 

 -shelter themselves, as well as the food offered, if it is to benefit them. In regard 

 to this last class of birds, let it be well understood that, whatever sort of shelter 

 is provided to cover the ration of buckwheat or mill sweepings, it should have at 

 least two entrances, one of these connecting with sheltering bushes, so that in 

 •case of a heavy snow, or of ice forming while the birds are in their feeding-place 

 their means of escape will not be cut off. 



In establishing either a window-sill or tree-trunk bird-counter, two things 

 'must be considered — protection from the weather while feeding and protection 

 ifrom cats and rodents. The window-sill stand may be easily protected from both, 



(272) 



