THE MENU CARD 
OF BIRDDOM 
E. F. ROWE 
Shrubs for the Bird Sanctuary that Supply a “ Balanced Ration ” 
and Lend Winter Color and All-season Grace to the Garden Itself 
Editors’ Note : Very opportunely comes this article of Mr. Rowe’s at the beginning of the fall planting season while there is 
time to create some sheltered little “city of refuge’’ for the birds who add such a hopeful note of gayety and life to the sleeping winter 
garden. Then, too, the bright-berried shrubs and the green of Junipers furnish a feast not alone for the feathered folk who frequent 
them, but for the eye and heart of man prone to weary of the too-gray monotony of an unrelieved winter landscape. 
M IOME grounds, even in the suburbs, may not be large 
I enough to furnish an extensive bird sanctuary, but even 
J on a small place some spot can be set aside where the 
__ _J§ birds may gather in safety. A tall hedge, a mass of 
shrubs, a group of evergreens, make ideal “cities of refuge” for 
bird life. 
Within a five-minute stroll of a thickly populated section of 
a large city 1 know of a natural tangle of wood and vine that 
modern improvements have not yet disturbed and destroyed. 
Familiarly called “The Dingle,” its boundaries enclose a few old 
widely sweeping Elms and Maples, some Silver Birches, here and 
there a group of Red Cedars, a tangle of Virginia Creepers and 
wild Grapes. Maybe you’ll find a Dogwood, some Elders, a 
Stag-horn Sumac or two, and a group of Hackberries. 
To this tangle of tree, shrub, and vine, the bird lover hies 
himself on a mild spring morning, hoping to hear some soloist 
who has just arrived from the southland. Slipping into a conven¬ 
ient nook, he settles down to an hour or more of such grand 
opera as was never heard on the stuffy stage of a concert hall, 
nor in any place where nature does not rule supreme. 
First the catbird, in his modest coat of gray, steps out and 
announces that the audience seems to have disappeared, that 
the singers may safely come to the stage, and begin the morn¬ 
ing’s entertainment. At once rises the flute-note of the robin, 
“AMONG SHRUBS THE VIBURNUMS CANNOT BE OVER-ESTIMATED’’ 
I he refreshing snowy blooms of early summer become the warm scarlet clustered berries of autumn 
which (if allowed!) hold nearly the winter through; the high Bush Cranberry (Viburnum opulus) 
shown above being more familiar than the Japanese variety which is also very attractive 
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