24 



THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



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A Commissary for Winter Birds 



A window near a sheltered corner looks out upon shrubbery and the 

 open spaces of a lawn. A heavy "north-easter" blowing from the lake has 

 banked up the shrubbery and piled house roof and branches with snow. 

 But there is good cheer within and without. At the clean swept feeding 

 shelf on the window ledge, back of the snow laden shrubbery, there is food 

 for all comers. The standard ration is hemp and chick feed and sunflower 

 seed. A thud plainly heard by one sitting at the fireside within means that 

 a nuthatch has dropped down for a sunflower seed. Grabbing it quickly, 

 he flies over to the nearby tree to wedge it into the bark where he can attack 

 it in approved nuthatch fashion. Chickadees in mellow note and juncoes 

 share in the feast as does an occasional jay. The cardinal flashes down, 

 cheeping loud and cheerfully, his female companion and all other species 

 of birds remaining discreetly apart until the male has had his fill. Birds 

 sit in the evergreen close at hand and await their turn. This tree favors 

 the approach of timid birds to the shelf and the tall ferns of the window 

 -box within doors screen the observer, and seem to be a part of the out-of- 

 doors. So successful is this in-door-out-of-door setting of the shelf that it 

 is frequently overcrowded and an extra supply of food has to be scattered 

 on the ground. It is at the home of Everett L. Millard in Highland Park. 



Three Orioles 



It was during a cold, rainy spell in the middle of July that we adopted 

 our three baby orioles. Since they had been calling for a day and a half, 

 as if cold and hungry, we climbed up high into a cottonwood tree, broke 

 off the branch to which the nest was fastened and brought them down. 

 The parents seemed to have been killed or to have abandoned them so 

 that we felt perfectly free to adopt the nestlings and the rites were con- 

 firmed when we took them into the house and fed them. 



One by one we disentangled their feet from the hair and string of the 



