238 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



from the human standpoint, the surroundings of home are 

 made more attractive by the presence of trees and shrubs. 

 In the prairie region of the West I have been impressed 

 with this. On former trips to North Dakota to study bird 

 Ufe, the little homes stuck out on the bare prairie looked for- 

 lorn enough. Most of those early settlers planted "tree 

 claims" and now these have grown up. Those formerly 

 bleak homes now look cozy and attractive nestling among 

 groves of trees and ornamental shrubbery. The financial 

 value of property is enhanced by attractive appearance and 

 surroundings. F. H. Kennard, the landscape architect, 

 aptly notes how surroundings can just as well be made at- 

 tractive as otherwise, and how windbreaks can almost 

 always be planted somewhere with benefit. Lanes, he sug- 

 gests, may be bordered with trees and walls covered with 

 vines without any encroachments upon land needed for 

 crops. 



Food-bearing Species. In setting out shrubbery with a 

 view to attracting birds, one will naturally give preference 

 to those species which bear fruit or berries that birds are 

 fond of. If there is already some shrubbery, note should be 

 taken of what is lacking, in order to supply the need. Mr. 

 Kennard aptly suggests the importance of planting so as to 

 provide a continuous supply of food, and proposes as fol- 

 lows: for summer supply — cherry, mulberry, raspberry, 

 blueberry, huckleberry, and the like; for autumn — elder and 

 the various kinds of dogwood and viburnum; for winter, 

 plants which hold their fruit longest — ^hawthorn, buckthorn, 

 mountain ash, barberry, bayberry, sumach, and wild rose. 



A Bulletin of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, by 

 W. L. McAtee, on "Plants Useful to Attract Birds and Pro- 

 tect Fruit," gives a list of food-bearing trees and shrubs in 

 what is thought to be the order of their attractiveness to the 



