Cultivating an Acre to Birds—ort crooxer, 
BY PROVIDING ADEQUATE SHELTER AND FOOD, THOUGH BUSY STREET TRAFFIC IS JUST ACROSS THE FENCE, 
YOU CAN SUCCESSFULLY MAKE A BIRD HARBOR IN MOST UNLIKELY SURROUNDINGS 
ILL you believe 
me when I say 
that it is possi- 
ble to attract 
birds in such numbers to 
a city lot that between two 
and three hundred of them 
will make their homes, 
rear their young and spend 
the summer season on an 
acre of ground in a thickly 
settled residence district? 
Probably not. You will 
think I am_ stretching 
the truth. Yet this is 
what one bird lover suc- 
ceeded in doing in a Chi- 
cago suburb. Perhaps you 
could do the same if you 
gave the same thought and 
effort to this end. But you would have 
to be an ardent lover of birds to accomplish 
it, since these little creatures appear to 
recognize instinctively an atmosphere which 
is friendly to their presence. 
It was no easy, one-year matter to ac- 
complish the results spoken of above. 
Eight seasons of painstaking effort were 
needed, together with a considerable ex- 
penditure of money. Yet when it is re- 
membered that on the start the bit of land 
in question was almost devoid of trees and 
shrubs the results—even in eight years— 
have been quite remarkable. Under more 
favorable circumstances it might be possi- 
ble to achieve the same ends more quickly. 
At any rate the experience of this city bird 
lover holds much in the way of suggestion 
and profit for all who are so situated that 
they can cultivate the intimacies of feath- 
ered life. Let no one be discouraged sim- 
Above a wren bungalow, with suet basket below, which 
provides food for the birds in the garden of Charles E. 
White, Kenilworth, IIl. 
which are shown here. 
the city throughout its park system 
School children of St. Paul, Minn., made and exhibited last winter 4700 bird houses, a very few of 
Visitors purchased 4250 during the week of the show; the rest were distributed by 
ply because one’s home is hemmed in by 
well developed suburban property. The 
acre of land which became a bird refuge 
is less than a dozen miles from the Chicago 
city hall and is within a stone’s throw of 
elaborate and pretentious homes. It is 
located upon one of the main arteries of 
automobile traffic in and out of the city. 
On pleasant Sunday afternoons as high as 
seventeen hundred motor vehicles pass this 
place within an hour. The noise from this 
trafic becomes at times quite annoying to 
people living in the neighborhood but the 
birds appear not to mind it in the least. 
There is a reason for this—as we will see. 
Food, shelter and protection, free homes 
and building sites, water for drinking and 
bathing purposes—these have been the 
lures with which the birds have been at- 
tracted to this spot season after season. 
Because all these have been found in abund- 
ance on this acre of ground many of these 
creatures return year after year to this 
favored spot. How is it known, you ask, 
that the same birds re-visit the place? 
Simple enough. Many of them have been 
trapped from time to time and aluminum 
bands placed upon their legs by which they 
can be easily identified. Blue birds, wrens 
and purple martins have returned with the 
greatest persistence owing perhaps to their 
semi-domesticated natures. The latter win- 
ter in far distant South America, Cuba and 
the Isle of Pines.. Early April finds about 
200 of them swooping down upon the several 
colony houses maintained for them in this 
Chicago suburb. A large number of them 
each year bear the leg bands which indicate 
a previous visit. 
Eight years ago a beginning was made 
upon this acre of land by setting out a 
perfect riot of shrubs and small trees. The 
idea pursued was that of making a thick 
sheltering barrier around the three sides 
of the lot which were unprotected by the 
house. A brick wall on one side, a high 
fence at the rear and an artistic but tight 
wire fencing in front gave further protection 
and seclusion from stray dogs and maraud- 
ing urchins. Prowling cats and English 
. 328 
sparrows — both of them 
pronounced enemies to 
native song birds—have 
been taken care of in 
all these years by speci- 
ally designed traps. Neigh- 
bors whose pet felines 
mysteriously disappeared 
soon learned the wisdom 
of asking no questions. 
“Dead cats make good 
fertilizer when planted at 
the foot of a grape vine,” 
was about all the satisfac- 
tion they received. With 
each succeeding year the 
shrubs have grown thicker 
and denser and have pro- 
duced a variety of ripened 
seeds and berries to serve 
as food for the birds. The cats have been 
reduced toa minimum and the English spar- 
rows kept fairly well down toward the van- 
ishing point. In this way the two items of 
shelter and protection—and in a measure 
that of food—have been provided. 
In the matter of free homes and building 
sites the provisions made have been both 
ample and unique. Some birds will build 
in man-made houses; others will not. For 
such as will, every possible means has been 
utilized to meet their particular wishes and 
likes in the way of home surroundings. 
Little boxes for wrens, chickadees and 
nuthatches—with the entrances so small 
that other birds cannot enter—have been 
put up in tempting locations. Blue birds 
—and wrens as well—have been enticed 
by specially prepared compartment houses. 
Neither of these birds, it is stated, will raise 
a second brood in the same nest. Wrens 
Three tier feeding tray near the summer porch of the 
house from which many different kinds of birds are seen 
feeding 
