134 Wild Bird Guests 



able distance by birds flying over. On reaching 

 such a spot the members of the squad fall to 

 with their shovels or snowshoes and clear or 

 trample a space from ten to twenty feet square. 

 If the food were thrown on untrodden snow, 

 it would be likely to sink in at the first 

 'thaw, and then it would be quite out of the 

 reach of most of the hungry ones. After scat- 

 tering a quantity of grain, the squad moves on 

 perhaps half a mile, and repeats the operation, 

 establishing as many feeding stations as possi- 

 ble in its own section during the time at its 

 disposal. 



Of course it may be somewhat disheartening 

 to find that seed scattered during the afternoon is 

 covered up by snow next morning, as sometimes 

 happens; but boys with the right stufi^ in them 

 will not be discouraged, but will stand up to their 

 work until it is finished. The high-school boys 

 of Stoneham, Massachusetts, were among the 

 first to show that no amount of snow could dis- 

 courage bird-feeders who had the proper spirit, 

 and in the unusually severe winter of 1903-1904, 

 they got out with their snow-shovels and grain 

 and suet after every storm, and established and 

 maintained a chain of seventy-five feeding sta- 

 tions around their town; so that no intelligent 

 bird could get either in or out without taking 



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