THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
can absolutely revolutionize bird life during the 
winter. Many of these little friends can easily 
enough endure the cold; and, in fact, no winter 
passes without a few robins and some others of our 
common birds are left behind by the flocks that go 
southward. Other sorts change their color, and 
stay with us as snow birds. I find no difficulty 
during the winter in gathering about my house a 
large number of nuthatches, chicadees, purple 
finches, and woodpeckers, by tying bones to the 
trees with a plenty of meat, and pieces of suet. 
Mrs. Davenport, of Vermont, adds to this list of 
birds, juncos, linnets, song sparrows, robins, blue 
jays and even orioles. All of these she feeds with 
hemp seed, cracked corn, sunflower seed, bread 
crumbs, and especially with bread made of one- 
third wheat and two-thirds Indian meal. She puts 
up a window shelf, protected by an awning, on 
which she places the food, and so has the advan- 
tage of being able to enjoy the birds while they en- 
joy her gifts. This problem is not one of senti- 
ment only, but of practical domestic economy. 
Not only all summer are the birds destroying our 
worst enemies —the only ones that we cannot 
alone compete with — but all winter they are hunt- 
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