386 Bird - Lore 



SUGGESTIONS FOR WINTER BIRD-STUDY 



1. How many birds do you know that winter in your locality? Are they permanent 

 residents,, found also in summer, or have they come down from the north? 



2. Do you know upon what each bird feeds, whether seeds or insects, fruits or flesh? 

 Prepare a list of the winter birds you know, stating after each whether it is a permanent 

 resident or a winter visitant and upon what it feeds. 



3. Some species that are permanent residents in a locality are known to migrate. Can 

 you tell whether the individuals which are present in winter are the same opes that stay 

 and nest during the summer, or do they move northward when spring comes and others 

 from the south take their places? How could you determine this? The Editor has placed 

 aluminum bands on the legs of Chickadees and WTiite-breasted Nuthatches in the winter 

 and then has seen them during the summer. 



4. In what sort of places do you find birds in winter? Do you always find the same 

 birds in the same places or do they wander about? Are all birds alike in this respect? 



5. Have you ever had a wild bird feed from your hand? If not, why not? 



6. Is there anyone in your neighborhood that knows the winter birds? Has he ever 

 been invited to talk about them in the school? 



7. How many people in your community are feeding the winter birds? Has anyone 

 of them been invited to talk in the school? 



8. How can you tell a male House Sparrow from a female in the winter? Is the dif- 

 ference any greater during the summer? What has happened? 



9. Can you tell the track of a Crow in the snow when you see it? that of a Pheasant? 

 that of a Sparrow? that of a Lark? 



10. Where do the winter birds spend the night? Each kind has a place where it pre- 

 fers to roost. Add this to your list of birds for as many species as you have observed, 

 and send in the list to Bird-Lore. The best lists and the best answers to any of these 

 questions will be published in the January-Februar>- number of Bird-Lore if they are 

 received by the first of January. 



FOR OR FROM JUNIOR OBSERVERS 



MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH A REDSTART 



Would some of Bird-Lore readers like to hear of my experience with a 

 Redstart? It happened one fall morning, early in October, when my family 

 was spending the winter in a summer bungalow twenty miles from 

 Chicago. 



While we were eating breakfast in the kitchen, a small bird flew against the 

 window twice. After breakfast, when Mother opened the door and stepped 

 out on the back porch, the bird flew past her into the room. Sometimes he 

 would fly on the rafters and would not come down again. We put water and 

 bread crtmibs on the rafters, and he drank the water but I do not know if he 

 ate the crumbs. I sat by the open fireplace so the Redstart would not fly in 

 and get burned. One time he flew into the kitchen and against a stove-pipe, 

 but it did not bum him so far as we could tell. 



He liked to flutter around the lamps, and when night came and we had to 



