48 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
then summer residents reénforced the ranks thinned by 
the onward passage of the migrants. Both quail and 
ruffed grouse have come to feed in places where food 
has been placed for them in suitable places by other 
residents of this town. What Ihave just related refers 
to the winter of 1895 and 1896, before the English 
sparrow invaded my premises. Since that time the 
birds have decreased in number, but not in species, 
because of necessarily changed conditions, for I have 
been obliged to deal with that disconcerting factor in 
some measure ever since the above date. 
“J will not particularize the different food for differ- 
ent birds, but say generally, those living largely upon 
larvee of insects all take the suet. The pine grosbeaks 
would never eat anything but seeds of maple and ash, 
often digging them from the frozen ground. The 
purple finches preferred to everything else the hemp 
seed; next, the sunflower seed.!_ The other seed-eaters 
will take corn, suet, nuts, and bread. In the summer 
much soaked bread is carried and fed to young, and 
the robins and orioles, song sparrows, and chipping 
sparrows are fond of it. Wheat bread grows so hard 
when frozen that in winter I use bread made of two- 
thirds corn meal and one-third wheat. This crumbles 
so fine that freezing makes less difference. But all 
prefer the wheat bread. 
“When we have a thaw in winter my flock disperses 
1] have observed large flocks of purple finches feed on the seeds of 
burdock in spring. ‘The birds picked the seeds from the ground and 
stayed from one to two weeks in the same locality. — [AurHor. 
