322 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



books, has been collected by Miss Ball into the chart 

 opposite. We can see, for the various birds, so far as 

 is known, what the species does for man and what, in 

 turn, we may do for the birds by way 

 of insuring for them an abundant and 

 inexpensive supply of their preferred 

 foods. Birds have been persecuted and 

 slaughtered for generations because 



F1G.125. ViREO AND Nest 



they have been compelled to levy toll 

 in cultivated fruits for their invaluable services. I say 

 compelled, because we have hitherto paid no attention to 

 the natural sources of food supply for our birds and, in 

 clearing the land, have destroyed, often unnecessarily, the 

 native trees and shrubs upon which they depended. It 

 is now well known that birds prefer wild to cultivated 

 fruit, and that to protect our fruit the most effective and 

 humane way is to leave or plant such wild or valueless 

 fruits as ripen at the same time. In coming to realize 

 how recklessly the country has been stripped, the writer 

 considers it bad biology even to put scarecrows in the 

 cherry trees to frighten the „. ,.„, ■.,....., . ., 



J o The little bird sits at his door in the sun, 



birds from our gardens until Atllt like a blossom among the leaves, 



And lets his illumined being o'errun 

 we have planted wild cherries, with the deluge of summer it receives ; 



, , . , _ , . His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings, 



mulberries, and JuneberrieS And the heart in her dumb breast flutters 



for the birds to feed on. We He slngs't?the wide world, and she to her 



can find plenty of other things , „"''^'.'~ .„. ... ... 



^ J '^ In the nice ear of Nature which song is the 



to eat, while the birds cannot. test? ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ 



All farms and many gardens 5/r /,«««>/, p. ,06. 



and city lots have room for some tree or trees which 

 would furnish food for birds. Our city streets, school 

 yards, and public parks might be planted most profitably 



