THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



35 



Photo by J. Evelyn Ridgway 



ANOTHER THRASHER'S NESTING PLACE— SHRUBS CANOPIED BY VINE OF THE 



WILD PASSION FLOWER 



As my bird family has grown, it is necessary to supply more 

 food, which unfortunately attracts the undesirables such as rab- 

 bits, white-footed and field mice at night, and Blue Jays, Black- 

 birds and hordes of English Sparrows by day. 



Largely on account of these undesirables, especially the 

 ever-hungry English Sparrow, the quantity of food consumed is 

 enormous. Mr. Ridgway buys chick and scratch feed by the 

 hundred pound bag and little raw Spanish peanut meats, twenty- 

 five pounds at a time. Suet and sun flower seed in proportion. 

 My grocer gave me a carton holding thirty-six boxes of dried 

 currants, which had become slightly wormy, but enough to pre- 

 vent the sale of them. Robins like them very much. When the 

 ground was frozen, it was impossible for them to get their 

 natural food and the currants proved an apparently satisfactory 

 substitute. 



Last fall, after the leaves had fallen from most of the trees 

 and shrubs, Mr. Ridgway made a count of the nests of the sea- 

 son on the north portion of our grounds only, that is, from the 

 open field south of the house to the northern end of the prem- 

 ises ; an area of about three acres. The count did not — in fact 

 could not include many nests hidden in the dense foliage of num- 

 erous large coniferous evergreens and in the tangle of climb- 

 ing roses covering the enclosing fence. Several additional nests 

 were found later, when certain shrubs that held their foliage 

 until late in the season became bare, and a few but by no means 

 all of them have been added to the original list. The total num- 

 ber of nests which were occupied during the season of 1922, 



