IDYLLS OF BIRD LIFE 
I cut 
tial footwear, I started out with a big bag of cracked corn and 
wheat, another of marble dust, a water pan and a small axe. 
The marble dust or its equivalent is one of the essentials toward 
keeping birds alive in the winter, for unless they have some 
kind of grit, which aids in the digestion of their food,/'all the 
other provisions are of no avail. They cannot live without 
something of this nature. 
When I reached the coverts which the birds us 
down a sapling, selected two forked boughs for upri 
drove them into the ground, allowing about two feet ’ 
Upon each of these I placed a straight branch and thehQmt 
, . . . \(( 
branches and twigs crosswise on these, thus forming 1 
I 
shelter two feet high in front and sloping to the ground in the 
\\ 
rear. From the adjoining corn field I gathered fodder, which I 
placed on this retreat to make it impervious to snow 
ture, and then upon the top, more boughs were placed 
improvised lean-to an appearance that harmonized with the s 
roundings. When my work was done I was w r ell pleased 
.... 2 
result, for it formed a perfect shelter which would p 
any bird that might make use of it in the most 
\ 
scraped the snow away inside and scattered 
the sand and the pan 
d, 
