BIRDS 



99 



posting bird laws in conspicuous places, and most important 

 of all, systematic bird work in public schools. The impor- 

 tance of engaging the interest of our youth in birds cannot 

 be overestimated. It results in a double benefit, for the 

 birds will be held in higher esteem and the children will 

 become possessed of a source of lasting pleasure. The nest- 

 robbing, bird-shooting boy and the feather-wearing girl 

 may be made the friends and allies of the birds." — Weed 

 and Dearborn, " Birds 

 in their Relations to 

 Man." 



But not only should 

 the boy cease to destroy 

 nests and shoot birds ; 

 not only should the girl 

 cease to wear any part 

 of a wild bird ; but boys 

 and girls alike should do 

 all they can to induce 

 others to do likewise. 

 Much may also be done, 

 likewise, even in the vicinity of large towns, to attract birds 

 and induce. them to nest. In the first place, the nests and 

 eggs of the English sparrow should be destroyed whenever 

 found. Stray cats should be kept from harming birds. 

 Pieces of meat, bones, and suet, when hung in the trees in 

 winter time, and crumbs and grains scattered about, will 

 serve to attract the winter visitants and, when thus at- 

 tracted, these birds devour great numbers of the eggs 

 and insects in the hibernating stages that during the follow- 

 ing season would attack the fruit and shade trees. And 

 finally, any ingenious boy can construct and put in the 

 trees bird houses that in the springtime would become the 



Fig. 77. 



-Bird house made by a twelve- 

 year-old boy. _ t 



