42 
HOUSE 
& GARDEN 
DOING YOUR CHRISTMAS BIT FOR THE BIRDS 
Let the Christmas Spirit Include LEE S. CRANDALL 
Your Winter Neighbors of the New York Zoological Park 
Gifts of Food and Houses Will 
Help Solve the Problem 
Oak walls and cypress shingled roof — 
what bluebird v ouldn't be proud to live 
here? It sells for $5 
the ricebird of Southern grain fields. The 
fat robin which draws the reluctant worm 
from our lawns in the spring may, in the 
autumn, appear beneath a pie crust in the 
cabin of a Louisiana negro. 
But most of our song birds are much too 
small to receive the attentions of any but 
the misguided small boy, and it is evident 
that we must look further. Search for ob¬ 
scure causes is unnecessary. Civilization 
itself is the force which is bringing destruc¬ 
tion to the birds. The razing of forests, the 
removal of dead stubs and underbrush, the 
spread of the homes of man, spelled the be¬ 
ginning of the end. Birds must have suit¬ 
able nesting sites and productive hunting 
grounds, if they are to hold their own. The 
bluebird, the wren, the chickadee and the 
woodpeckers require cavities in which to 
rear their young. Where such simple wants 
cannot be satisfied, there birds will not be 
found. There is no mystery about it. 
The European house sparrow has re¬ 
ceived more than its share of blame. There 
is no doubt that he is able to, and indeed 
frequently does, drive the timid bluebird 
and the diminutive wren from desirable 
nesting holes; the purple martin has suf¬ 
fered much from the inroads of the spar¬ 
row. But this invader spreads with the 
city, and it is not easy exactly to apportion 
the blame. Anyone who has seen an ag¬ 
gressive song sparrow drive its European 
relative from a feeding board must feel 
some doubt as to the fighting ability of the 
house sparrow, for all his garrulousness. 
A much more serious menace is the star¬ 
ling. Introduced in 1890, this bird has 
spread alarmingly. Like the sparrow, it is 
W HAT are you doing for the birds? 
Are you in any way, however 
modest, helping to pay the debt mankind, 
particularly in eastern North America, owes 
the feathered citizens? 
Are you going to give the birds a Christ¬ 
mas present this year ? 
When the white man first came to Amer¬ 
ica, the balance of nature was perfect. 
Countless numbers of small birds kept in 
check the hordes of noxious insects and 
destroyed the seeds of undesirable plants. 
Hawks and owls fed on the smaller rodents, 
and the few birds added to their fare were 
never missed from the great avian popula¬ 
tion. Foxes, weasels, martens and other 
predacious mammals found food in plenty, 
but their depredations made no perceptible 
impression on the source of supply. The 
forest resounded to the drum of the ruffed 
grouse, the heath hen abounded, the wild 
turkey was everywhere, and periodically the 
sun was darkened for hours by huge flocks 
of migrating passenger pigeons. 
Today what do we find? Our smaller 
songbirds are sadly reduced in numbers, 
and no longer able to cope successfully with 
the many insect pests with which our 
groves and orchards are infested. The use¬ 
ful species of rapacious birds are merciless¬ 
ly persecuted for the sins of a few evil¬ 
doers, such as the sharp-shinned and Cooper 
hawks, and rats and mice are rampant. The 
marauding house cat, the worst enemy of 
American bird life, has come to replace the 
fox and the marten. The heath hen, re¬ 
duced to a pitiful remnant, manages to ex¬ 
ist, by grace of a vigilant warden, on the 
tiny island known as Martha’s Vineyard. 
The woodpeckers like a nesting box of this 
type, made from a section of a real tree. 
Size for flickers, $1.50 
The wild turkey and the ruffed grouse are 
found only in remote districts, and the pas¬ 
senger pigeon has vanished forever. 
The Reasons for the Change 
Well may we ask what has brought about 
these regrettable changes. The condition 
of the larger game birds may be laid di¬ 
rectly at the door of the army of unrestrict¬ 
ed hunters who have ravaged the coverts of 
America. But the slow disappearance of 
the small insect and seed-eating species is 
being occasioned by much more subtle fac¬ 
tors which are difficult to remedy. 
A few have been the victims of man. The 
bobolink of our northern meadows is the 
reedbird of the marshes of New Jersey and 
Purple martins are foncl 
of company — in their 
own social set. Twenty- 
eight pairs can live in 
this white cottage, $12; 
copper roof, $15 
A sheltered feeding house, with glass 
sides, protects the guests while at their 
meals. With pole, $10 
