378 USEFUL BIRDS. 
We may properly include under the head of winter feeding 
the provision of food for such land birds as migrate through 
New England in late fall, winter, or early spring, and those 
that are resident in winter. At that season the farmer is 
likely to have more time to attend to birds than in summer, 
and in the colder months they most need our help. No doubt 
thousands of birds, that might have been saved with very 
little trouble on the farmer’s part, have been starved in hard 
winters. 
We may expect to be visited in autumn by Robins and 
other migrating Thrushes, some of which, in favorable sea- 
sons, may remain through the winter. To keep such birds 
in winter we must have sheltering evergreens, and vines, 
shrubs, and trees which retain their fruit. The berries of 
the Virginia creeper are especially acceptable to Thrushes. 
It is very desirable to keep with us as long as possible 
the many species of Sparrows which pass through the coun- 
try on their way south in fall, and to persuade as many as 
we may to remain through the winter. Careless husbandry 
tends to bring these birds about in spring and fall, when 
they gather to feed on weed seeds in neglected gardens and 
fields ; but, if we wish to have them continue this good work 
all through the winter and spring, they must be provided 
with food, under shelter, to which they can resort during 
snowstorms and afterward, while the snow lies deep or when 
all vegetation is covered with a coating of ice from the driv- 
ing sleet or freezing rain. The Sparrows seem to prefer, as 
a place of refuge from their enemies, the shelter afforded by 
thickets and tangles of deciduous bushes and vines, such as 
may sometimes be found on the south side of a hill near the 
edge of a swamp. A few brush piles will give them addi- 
tional shelter. A little chaff scattered in the dooryard will 
bring them about the house whenever a flurry of snow covers 
the ground. Where there are scratching sheds for poultry, 
with the south side of each shed open except for its screen 
of poultry netting, the birds will find shelter and food on 
cold and stormy mornings. Birds readily pass through or- 
dinary two-inch mesh poultry netting, and when once in the 
shed they are safe from the attacks of catsand Hawks. Where 
