1 6 OUR WINTER BIRDS 



make serviceable roosts and may be placed where 

 needed in winter, to be removed when the foliage 

 of summer turns every tree into a dormitory. Left 

 in some inconspicuous position and over-run with 

 vines, they offer capital nesting-places for Catbirds 

 and Thrashers. I have made an attractive lodging 

 house for birds by stacking lima bean poles, with the 

 vines still attached, in the form of a tepee. 



Having assured our feathered guests safe and 

 comfortable quarters, we must prepare a bill-of-fare 

 which will appeal to their varied tastes. 



There should be cone-bearing trees for the Xross- 

 bills. Pine Grosbeaks and Siskins, box elder and 

 mountain ash for a possible Evening Grosbeak, 

 birches for the Redpolls, Virginia creeper for the 

 Flickers and Waxwings, sunflowers for the Gold- 

 finches, while dogwood, thorn crab-apple {Crata- 

 ffus), privet, bayberry, staghorn sumach, viburnum, 

 barberry and black alder all bear fruit which, ripen- 

 ing in the fall, will not fail to attract winter birds. 



But nature's larder cannot be stocked in a day; 

 nor can it always be kept filled. We must therefore 

 substitute for it or add to it food which we have 

 learned birds like; this we may offer to them in a 

 variety of ways, always remembering that we are 

 setting the table for birds and not for cats. 



Our pleasure in attracting the birds to our homes 



