SOME OHIO BIRDS 
9 
ATTRACTING THE BIRDS AND ENCOURAGING 
THEIR INCREASE 
FEEDING, ESPECIALLY IN WINTER 
There are many causes for the diminution in the numbers of 
our native birds. Man is responsible for it, either directly or in¬ 
directly, to a great extent. The cutting of forests; clearing of 
shrubbery; mowing of fence rows; draining of swamps; tilling of the 
land; shooting for food, for profit or sport; destruction of those that 
injure crops; and burning over land, all have a bearing on the sub¬ 
ject. So likewise does the erection of light houses, telephone wires, 
and wire fences; also, the introduction of bird destroying animals.. 
Nature also limits the multiplication of birds as well as of other 
creatures. Over some of nature’s checks mantas no control, such 
as the elements, and it is little less than miraculous that so many 
birds, young and old, escape death. Entire bands of migrating 
birds are sometimes overcome by storms and swept into the sea. 
Many starve or freeze to death. 
Birds are not always the cheery, light-hearted creatures of sum¬ 
mer. Sometimes conditions are most adverse, and for days at a time 
food is unobtainable. At such times, many a bird that otherwise 
might starve or freeze to death may be saved by feeding. The time 
and expense required to maintain a food shelf for the birds is trivial, 
but the good resulting is very great. The food shelf should be 
placed, if possible, in a sheltered situation, with the southern side 
exposed, and well out of reach of cats. A south window is a good 
place and permits of observation from within. Suet, cracked nuts, 
seeds, grains and crumbs should be furnished in goodly quantity. 
When the ground is frozen and no snow is in evidence, warm water 
is a necessity. A suet ball may be suspended from a branch or 
under the porch for the Chickadees, Nuthatches and Downy Wood¬ 
peckers. This is made by winding a piece of suet with cord to keep 
it from falling to pieces and suspending it by a piece of strong twine, 
eight or ten inches long. House Sparrows seldom, if ever, bother a 
piece of suet so fixed, but more or less trouble will be caused by the 
Sparrows driving other birds from the food shelf. For those birds 
that will not come to the food shelf, scatter a quantity of the fine 
litter from the hay loft in some open but protected place. Many of 
our native Sparrows can be attracted in this way. Chaff, mixed 
with grain, and scattered in a sheltered place near the haunts of 
Quail may be the means of saving many from death by starvation or 
freezing. When hard pressed by hunger, Quail sometimes feed 
about hay stacks in the field or come to the barnyard where, if not 
molested, and a little grain is thrown to them, they will remain 
throughout the winter. 
