eee Url UB Nea sO BET PN Ze 
the summer and early fall we have in the yard in boxes a constant 
supply of seedless grapes. Several stores save for us the grapes that 
fall off the stems and the birds enjoy these very much. I can safely 
estimate that we use every season from three to five hundred pounds 
of grapes. It is a great delight to me, when I come home in the after- 
noon and open the fence gate, to have the robins flock from all over 
the yard and greet me as if to say, “Our grapes are gone, have you 
any more?” They are seldom disappointed. 
The hard-headed business man or woman will wonder if it pays 
to spend so much time and money in feeding the birds and protecting 
them. Judge for yourself. Here is a picture I saw last year. Late 
one afternoon I had piaced about a dozen apples on the lawn for the 
birds. I was standing inside our front door talking to a friend who 
suddenly turned to me and exclaimed, “See that beautiful bird!” 
About fifteen feet from where we were standing and in a space about 
ten feet square were two brown thrashers, three blue jays, six or seven 
robins, several catbirds, one cardinal and eight male scarlet tanagers. 
I have never before seen so many tanagers at one time in a small 
space. For a moment my heart stood still. It was a scene I will 
possibly never see again, a marvelous collection of live birds in their 
beautiful spring plumage, a sight worth riches. Does it pay? You 
answer. 
At our cafeteria we have a handsome financial deficit every year, 
but also a large surplus of joy, and our business of feeding the birds 
has paid large dividends. Berwyn. 
Quincy Bird Calendar for 1937 
By THOMAS E. MUSSELMAN 
JANUARY 1. The usual winter birds are here. 
JANUARY 7. Ice and sleet storm has broken every tree in town. 
JANUARY 10. Mockingbirds have been reported generally about 
the feeding trays. 
JANUARY 12. A purple finch was sent in for identification. It 
had been feeding on the seeds of Osage hedge. Robert Painter of 
LaGrange, Missouri, just across the river, had an American magpie 
brought in. It had been caught in a rat trap set for mink, and baited 
with a muskrat body. I feel this must be the same magpie reported 
November 15 by a farmer ten miles north of Quincy. 
JANUARY 16. The winter has been an open one. Herring gulls, 
and American mergansers have been common along the river all win- 
ter with an occasional bald eagle. 
JANUARY 17. Saw a large flock of female red-winged blackbirds. 
JANUARY 18. Cleaned and painted the ninety-two bluebird boxes 
on my Liberty Route. 
