JSv Zhc Ma^stbe 
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN, ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN AUDUBON SOCIETIES 
)ne Year 25 Cents 
Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Madison, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter August 23, 1909, at Madison, Wis., under the act of Congress of March 3, 1879 
/Oh. XIII. 
NOVEMBER, 1911 
NO. 
WINTER FOOD FOR BIRDS 
By John Watkins, Calumet, Michigan 
A few years ago, a robin made its first 
•all in our yard in March. It was ex- 
remeh early in the season for it to be 
is far north as the 47th parallel of lati¬ 
tude. It might have come on the south 
vind of a few days previous, or it might 
gave been one of those freaks that stays 
>ver the winter in the thick woods. This 
s sometimes the case; woodsmen have 
seen them on rare occasions near mid- 
vmter. After a snowfall of six inches, 
lie weather turned cold, and we all 
bought poor robin would starve or 
feeze. Pieces of bread were thrown out 
where lie was seen, but they remained 
mtouched. Still the robin made his ap¬ 
pearance after the storm had cleared 
iway, none the worse, and even remained 
‘or the season. Did it secure insects 
Tom under the bark of trees, or did it 
ast during the storm, and three or four 
lays more until the snow had gone ? We 
til know it got no worms from the 
'•round, and the bread was disdained. 
Since then, I have noticed some people 
flitting out grain or bread for birds 
vhicli never eat that kind of food, and 
nany people who like birds, but who 
lave made no study of their food habits, 
nake the mistake of putting out the 
vrong kind of food. 
I have solved the perplexing problem 
of Ike English sparrow for my locality. 
AVhen I put up my first wren boxes, I re ¬ 
solved to shoot off all the English spar¬ 
rows, or more properly they should be 
called house sparrows. I live, however, 
in the country; no grain is raised close 
by, and I am careful not to scatter any 
around the yard, hence no house spar¬ 
rows have stayed around for two years. 
A few came, but did not stay, and 1 have 
not had to shoot one, or destroy a nest in 
this locality, whereas a half-mile away, 
there are plenty of them in the town. I 
am of the opinion that the warfare on 
the house sparrow is not entirely wise. 
They are a nuisance around a farmer’s 
barn, but m the grasshopper season they 
change, their grain eating habit. 1 have 
seen large flocks of them in the hayfield 
possibly hunting for hay seed, but I 
know they eat many grasshoppers. 
Like chickens they eat both grain and 
insects, but the wild migratory native 
birds, such as warblers and swallows, 
never eat grain. When a small boy I 
watched the barn and cave swallows 
skim through the air at evening time, 
and wondered why they flew back and 
forth; and although the eaves and raft- 
stet of the barn were full of nests I 
i 
