D e c emher, 1915 
45 
Simpler than 
these large 
houses are the 
feeding shelves 
intended to be 
attached to trees 
or to the house 
itself. M any 
designs are to 
be had, but few 
are better than 
an ordinary 
shelf made of 
b o a rd s , pro¬ 
vided with a 
covered hopper 
to hold the sup¬ 
ply of seed, and 
a bit of branch to which pieces of suet are 
tied. Such a shelf can be conveniently 
fastened to the outside of a window ledge, 
where the birds that come to it may be 
comfortably observed from indoors. Often 
the feathered visitors become so tame dur¬ 
ing severe weather that they will continue 
feeding unconcernedly while you watch 
them from but a few feet inside the win¬ 
dow. Sunflower and hemp seed will please 
them very well, and are about the best 
standard to use for all types of feeding- 
houses and shelves. The suet, too, attracts 
nearly all of our winter birds, and too 
much of it can hardly be put out on the 
trees about the house, as well as on the 
hooks and branches at the shelves. 
Quite different in purpose from the feed¬ 
ing stations, and yet often attractive as an 
encouragement to birds to winter about the 
place, are those nesting boxes which can 
serve also as night shelters for chickadees, 
woodpeckers and other species which or¬ 
dinarily roost in holes in the trees. Among 
such boxes probably the best are those 
which are made from sections of natural 
logs, hollowed out and with a suitable en¬ 
trance hole at the upper end. These should 
be fastened to the trunk and nearly per¬ 
pendicular branches of trees, preferably at 
a little distance from 
the house. Besides 
their usefulness on win¬ 
ter nights the boxes are 
often occupied as nesting 
sites in the spring by 
those birds which have 
become accustomed to 
using them during the 
cold weather. Indeed, 
even boxes intended 
merely for nesting may 
well be put up now, for 
after they have become 
somewhat weather- 
v ; 
Flickers show a partial¬ 
ity for a house of this 
shape. Hang in a 
sheltered corner. $5 
lows in well-set¬ 
tled parts of the 
country have 
long since for¬ 
saken the ances¬ 
tral nest sites 
unde r over¬ 
hanging rocks 
on cliffs, the 
former to plas¬ 
ter their m u d 
nests on the 
rafters in wel¬ 
coming barns, 
the latter to line 
the eaves with 
their bottle- 
shaped domi¬ 
ciles. Some birds, such as chickadees 
and tit-mice, either take possession of 
natural cavities or the deserted nest holes 
of other birds, or make nest excavations 
for themselves in very soft, dead wood. 
Still others, such as the crested flycatcher, 
tree swallow, bluebird, house wren, nut¬ 
hatch, sparrow hawk and screech owl, al¬ 
ways seek a ready-made nest cavity. 
Nearly any of these may be attracted to 
an artificial nesting cavity resembling a nat¬ 
ural woodpecker nest hole. Bluebirds and 
house wrens are not at all fussy as to the 
architecture of their homes. Plain wood 
boxes 6 inches square and 10 inches deep 
will do very well for them. A round en¬ 
trance hole should be cut near the top, and 
it is well to have a little perch for the birds 
to alight on when about to enter. There 
should also be a sloping roof to shed rain. 
House wrens are not even averse to estab¬ 
lishing a household in an old tomato can 
nailed up on post or tree. Their pleasing 
and persistent melody and the activity they 
display in reducing the ranks of the insect 
hordes constitute a high rate of rental and 
make the birds desirable tenants and 
neighbors. 
They are interesting in themselves, these 
cold weather birds, and the mere sight of 
them close by is sufficient reward for all 
the trouble that has been 
taken to bring them about. 
But they have another and 
very practical value, 
which no lover of the 
garden and its surround¬ 
ings should neglect, their 
value as inveterate de¬ 
stroyers of insect pests. 
Attract the birds in win¬ 
ter as in summer, and 
they will repay you many 
times over, both as insect 
destroyers and as inter¬ 
esting companions. 
A simple covered lunch 
shelf can be hung out¬ 
side the window. The 
birds will come. $1.50 
Three houses for three kinds of birds; left to 
right, woodpecker house, $1.25; wren house, 
$1; bluebird house, $1.25. Hang them in a 
sheltered position 
stained they will be more apt to find tenants 
than when they are too evidently new. 
What Guests to Expect 
And what birds will all these efforts at¬ 
tract? Well, the juncos will come—of that 
you may rest assured. Chickadees, too, 
will probably arrive some snowy day, and 
in a short time become so tame that one of 
them may be induced to perch for a mo¬ 
ment literally in your hand. The downy 
woodpecker, he of the black and white 
striped coat and the scarlet cap on the back 
of his head, is apt to linger for weeks to 
feed on the bits of suet; and that other 
tree climber, the nuthatch, will be a fre¬ 
quent visitor. In many localities the pur¬ 
ple finches find the feeding shelf a con¬ 
venient feeding table, and the jays, an oc¬ 
casional song sparrow, and many another 
less known bird will come at intervals 
throughout the winter. 
As a rule, tree and bush nesting birds 
seek thick cover; therefore the more densely 
foliaged our trees and the more numerous 
and tangled the shrubbery the more abun¬ 
dant will be such neighbors. 
A protected ledge on the porch or under 
a cornice may prove an acceptable home site 
for phoebe or robin; a good-sized chimney 
flue is almost sure to shelter the log cabin 
of a chimney swift; barn and eave swal¬ 
A frequent visitor to the lunch counter will be the blue jay, who 
becomes quite tame 
The weathercock house 
turns with the wind. $5 
Set a sheltered food house 
of this type on a pole. $8 
