Feeding Wild Birds 



By Eugene Swope 



"I see fewer birds about this winter," is the substance of the observation my 

 neighbors at College Hill, Cincinnati, have been making annually for the last three 

 years. 



"The fact is there are more birds about this winter than for years, but fewer 

 visit your yard, however, because there are three times as many feeding-stations 

 in the neighborhood this winter as there were last, and there are birds at all of 

 them," is my annual explanator)^ reply. 



Three winters ago there were three feeding-boards for birds in our neighbor- 

 hood. This winter there are thirty. The number of feathered pensioners has 

 not increased in proportion to the number of places where their food awaits 

 them, when frost and snow have locked them out from nature's storehouses. 

 This special attention to wild birds exemplifies a new activity of the humane spirit 

 as well as the popularity of the idea of feeding the wild birds. What has taken 

 place here has been repeated in nearly every community throughout the coun- 

 try. Farmers are now making a special point of feeding quail when snow covers 

 the ground. The number of birds that are finding their way to these feeding- 

 places — "lunch counters" — is annually increasing, and new species are now and 

 then added to the numbers. For instance at Wilmington, Ohio, last winter a 

 chewink became a daily caller at Mrs. N. H. Henderson's feeding-board. This 

 winter a southern mocking-bird is staying with her. 



The humane appeal is probably responsible for the existence of nine-tenths 

 of all the feeding-boards about our homes, and those who supply the food do 

 not bother themselves to know what birds or how many enjoy their hospitality. 

 They are satisfied to know that the birds come. Nevertheless, the feeding-board, 

 when advantageously placed, properly adapted, affords one of the very best 

 opportunities for the study and identification of resident birds and some winter 

 visitors. What I consider a practical and a most convenient feeding-board for 

 easy observation consists of a few inches extension to an ordinary window-sill. 

 A few pot plants on the inside afford sufficient screen for the observer, who can 

 sit in the comfort of his home and watch and learn at close range, very close if he 

 so desires, those birds that come and go. 



At a bird feeding-board one gets ornithology first-hand, along with con- 

 tinuous, impromptu vaudeville thrown in. The fun will interfere with necessary 

 concentration to fix facts, for I assure you that there are some funny "stunts" 

 pulled off about a feeding-board. The elementary emotions and desires are the 

 themes of these sketches — fear, confidence, love, hate, sham, simplicity, conceit, 

 humility, pugnacity, peace at any price, hunger, satiety, and super-abundance of 

 life, and all exemplified; and characters ranging from the confiding, cheerful 

 little chickadee to the conscience-stricken blue jay, from the awkward nuthatch 

 to the agile titmouse, will not only use your feeding-board for a public dining- 

 room, but for a public stage. 



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