12 
Baltimore Oriole. 
no attention to the natural sources of food supply for our birds, and, 
in clearing the land, have destroyed, often unnecessarily, the native 
trees and shrubs upon which they depended. It is now well known 
that birds much prefer wild to cultivated fruit and that to protect our 
fruit the most effective and humane way is to leave or plant such wild 
or valueless fruits as ripen at the same time. 
In coming to realize how recklessly the coun¬ 
try has been stripped, the writer considers it 
bad biology to even put scarecrows in his 
cherry trees, to frighten the birds from his 
garden, 1 until we have planted wild cherries, 
mulberries and June berries for the birds to 
feed on. We can find plenty of other things 
to eat, while the birds cannot. All farms and many gardens and city 
lots have room for some tree or trees which would furnish food for 
birds. Our city streets, school yards and public parks might be 
planted with some regard to this matter 
most profitably, since in addition to add¬ 
ing pleasing variety it would tend to fill 
our towns and even cities with our native 
birds. No less an observer than John 
Burroughs says : ‘ ‘ Indeed the food ques¬ 
tion seems to be the only serious one 
with the birds. Give them plenty to eat 
and no doubt the majority of them would face our winters.” And he 
goes on to describe how a pair of bluebirds and even a mocking bird 
were induced, by the shelter of his porch and the 
fruit of a hackberry tree that stood close by, to 
spend the winter c with him eighty miles north of 
New York. With available room properly planted 
we might easily have ten wild birds to one that we 
vire °. have now in our towns and even many of our 
cities. And those who favor the English sparrow because he is the 
“only bird we have in winter,” might soon be consoled abundantly 
for his absence. 
The little bird sits at his door in the 
sun 
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, 
And lets his illumined being o’errun 
With the deluge of summer it receives; 
His mate feels the eggs beneath her 
wings, 
And the heart in her dumb breast flut¬ 
ters and sings. 
He sings to the wide world, and she to 
h er nest. 
In the nice ear of Nature which song 
is the best? — Lowell. 
1 Damage to garden fruits by birds is a matter about which we may be 
greatly mistaken. I have four large cherry trees about the house, and robins 
have swarmed in them in cherry time; but I have little evidence that they 
