88 
House & Garden 
The MACBETH GALLERY 
•HKEEZY DAY" 
by HENRY W. RANGER 
Announcement of 
SPECIAL GROUP EXHIBITION 
AMERICAN PAINTINGS 
During February 
The gallery illustrated "Art Notes" trill he 
mailed on request 
WILLIAM MACBETH 
Incorporated 
450 Fifth Avenue (a; Fometh strao New A ork City 
ixjtns 
ANTIQUES 
LOUIS XV COMMODE; RED LACQUER. WITH HAND¬ 
SOME BRONZE MOUNTINGS, FROM OUR EXTENSIVE 
COLLECTION OF FRENCH PERIOD FURNITURE. 
554 MADISON AVE., NEW YORK 
CORNER OF 55TH STREET 
Branch: 406 Madison Ave. Bet. 47th and 48th Sts. 
Hospitality for Birds 
(Continued from page 86) 
slow to perceive that his best resource 
is in the help given by birds. 
Many of the birds seen in summer 
about the house or in the orchard sub¬ 
sist wholly on insects the year through; 
the sparrows and finches are seed-eaters 
—mainly weed-seeds; a few species 
take buds and berries in season; but in 
their nesting-time all kinds consume in¬ 
sects voraciously. This last fact is the 
important one, because it is precisely 
in that season (May and June) when 
birds are rearing their young that the 
gardener is rearing his vegetables and 
flowers, and then it is he most needs, as 
well as most benefits by, the aid of the 
birds. 
Robins as Skilled Laborers 
What does this help amount to? Let 
us examine the work of the robin for its 
answer to the question. One thinks of 
this bird as spending its whole time 
pulling earthworms on the lawn, but 
that is really a small and comparatively 
unimportant part of its industry. The 
robin would far rather find one of those 
fat white grubs of the Maybug that 
feeds on grass-roots, and, if let alone, 
will soon ruin a lawn; and it searches 
for these grubs so diligently that it is not 
too much to say that every successful 
lawn is preserved in its velvety beauty 
mainly by the skilled labor of robins. 
These same white grubs are the worst 
devastators of strawberries, cutting off 
the plants just below the surface of the 
ground. The early arrival of this thrush 
in spring is especially advantageous to 
us in this particular, for until the 
sprouting of foliage calls them forth to 
feed no caterpillars may be found, and 
robins must go to the ground, or be¬ 
neath it, to get food for the young 
clamoring in thousands of nests be¬ 
fore mid-April. He is the earliest bird 
to begin work in the morning, and finds 
the cutworms before they have crawled 
into their holes in the soil for the day; 
and at this season these pests furnish 
a fifth, at least, of the robin's fare. 
Gardeners know that where cutworms 
are numerous nothing can be raised suc¬ 
cessfully. 
Every bird requires an inordinate 
amount of food, as measured by the 
need of mankind. Their expenditure of 
energy is almost incessant, their temper¬ 
ature and pulse far higher than in 
mammals, and the rapidity with which 
food is assimilated and waste discharged 
is astounding. Hence they must eat 
frequently and plentifully. An adult 
bird in summer consumes daily on the 
average food to the amount of at least 
a quarter of its weight. 
Many statistics gathered by patient 
watchers prove how serviceable this vo¬ 
racity may be to the gardener. Profes¬ 
sor Beal found in the stomach of a yel¬ 
low-billed cuckoo 250 tent-caterpillars; 
one nighthawk had eaten just before its 
death 60 grasshoppers; Dr. Warren took 
28 cutworms from the stomach of a 
redwinged blackbird; and so on. 
Welcome the Birds 
It is evident that the more birds you 
can have about your place the better. 
Welcome them. Protect them. Per¬ 
suade your neighbors to do the same, 
and to cooperate with you in tearing 
down the nests and breaking up the 
roosts of those mischievous interlopers, 
the English sparrows, which disturb and 
drive away our native songsters. Or¬ 
ganize a neighborhood bird-club, chiefly 
to teach the children the economic im¬ 
portance as well as the aesthetic value of 
bird-life. Drive away or kill crows, 
hluejays and small hawks, looking after 
them especially in the early morning, as 
long as the nesting-season lasts. Most 
of all, shoot every stray cat—and curb 
your own! House-cats ruin more bird- 
homes in a garden than any other ma¬ 
rauder, and no one can trust his own 
pet, which ought therefore to be con¬ 
fined during the few weeks when birds 
have young in their nests. Here again 
the cooperation of neighbors is neces¬ 
sary to overcome the pest. Lastly, ex¬ 
ert yourself to enforce the laws againsl 
shooting song-birds, egg-collecting and 
similar misdemeanors. 
Protection 
To increase the number of birds 
around any house having about it some 
open space, with trees, is mainly a mat¬ 
ter of giving them protection. If possi¬ 
ble, surround the area you would like 
to make a bird-sanctuary with a ver¬ 
min-proof fence of woven wire, the 
foot sunk 18 inches into the ground, 
and the top, six feet above the surface, 
guarded by an overhang of the netting, 
or of barbed wire. 
If a cat-proof fence is impracticable, 
put guards of sheet-metal around all 
nesting trees and the poles supporting 
the bird-houses; these should be six 
feet above the ground, and may be 
plain girdles or made to stand out like 
petticoats. Most of our familiar birds 
make their nests in trees or bushes. 
Shrubbery and trees for nesting-sites 
are therefore essential to making a 
place attractive to helpful birds; and 
bushes should be allowed to form thick¬ 
ets, and should be pruned back severely 
when young so as to produce many 
crotches. Old trees suitable for boring 
by woodpeckers, and affording comfort¬ 
able crannies to chickadees and similar- 
hole-dwellers, are scarce away from the 
real woods; and if your garden has a 
dead stub in it regard it as a treasure. 
Most of the hole-nesting birds, how¬ 
ever, will utilize artificial cavities, such 
as can be made from hollowed logs, or 
ordinary bird-houses. 
Bird-Houses 
Styles of bird-houses are as varied as 
taste and money dictate, and several 
makers of these tiny cabins produce ex¬ 
ceedingly picturesque and correspond¬ 
ingly expensive patterns. But any one 
may make his own bird-houses, and 
enjoy doing it; and the rougher they 
are, and the older and more weather¬ 
beaten the material, the more likely 
they are to be chosen by wren or blue¬ 
bird—probably because they look more 
natural than a slickly painted “cottage.” 
In “Farmers’ Bulletin 609,” which may 
be had of the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture for the asking, are given designs 
of various kinds, plans for building 
them, and suitable sizes of entrance— 
an important item. Don’t put out too 
many bird-houses, nor too close to¬ 
gether; and those mounted on a pole 
or fence-post are more likely to be ten¬ 
anted than those hidden away in some 
pretty tree-top. 
An important means of attracting 
birds about the house is a provision for 
drinking water and bathing. Very sim¬ 
ple shallow pans of zinc on the lawn, 
or a little concrete basin there, will 
answer the purpose; but the bird-bath 
offers an opportunity for the applica¬ 
tion of art to a most worthy and legiti¬ 
mate objective in garden decoration. 
In a great many hillside situations a 
highly picturesque effect of rockwork 
holding a small, shallow vat of water, 
may be contrived with inconsiderable 
expenditure. In winter, when every¬ 
thing is frozen hard, a cup of water, 
put out hot to retard freezing, may 
be a boon to the little creatures that 
flock to the window-shelf to enjoy your 
daily bounty of seeds, crumbs, and suet. 
The usual objection against encour¬ 
aging birds to resort to our gardens is 
that some of them make sad forays on 
fruit; but this is principally because no 
wild supply is available. “The pres- 
(Continued on page 90) 
