16 



THE MAKING OF BIRDCRAFT SANCTUARY 



Among the notable birds that have adopted onr home-made 

 houses is the Great-crested Fly-catcher, who is quite at home 

 in a decayed apple stub with a bark roof. 



A natural brush-heap, supplemented from time to time, is 

 particularly attractive to the Brown Thrashers, who are fast 

 becoming regular visitors to the feeding-shelf in spite of alleged 

 shyness. A pair of Thrashers made up their mind to winter 

 Avith us. The female succumbed after Christmas, during the 

 first zero weather, but the male lived on, roosting in some 

 salt hay that packed pipes under the north porch, feeding upon 



ACADIAN OWL 

 Photographed by Wilbur F. Smith 



cornbread, meat-scraps, and the like and sunning every day 

 under the shelter of a bank. 



On Monday, April 1, he began to sing in a broken fashion, 

 while on the 10th he burst into full song! This seems to me an 

 important record, as the migrant Thrashers are not due until 

 the last week of April and rarely sing until May 1. 



During the winter six Acadian Owls were recorded. One 

 was picked up in a half-frozen state and after being thawed 

 out, was put in a cage and fed with pieces of English Sparrows 

 and Starlings that the warden had caught for it. After a time 

 the cage was placed in the cellar, which is light and above freez- 

 ing temperature. The Owl was let fly about, so that it might 

 keep its wing action until the weather was mild enough to liber- 



