Homing with the birds

57- * II kLLORAH A Daughter ok the Land HOMING 374 ^YITH THE BIRDS share consistent with his means and location It is always possible to give a high degree of protec- your good graces when on your premises Shield they locate their nests them from cats, squirrels, other birds, and wilful children to the best of your ability Put up all the boxes, old gourds, cans, dippers, any protective nesting shelter you can furnish for them A prothonotary warbler, a thing of gold and bubbling tion to the birds that seek song, passed close it nested in The birds my by a ten-dollar bird box, bait can not on our dock last when summer and in the least object to tin cans the crudest boxes or hollow limbs placed for their you have a small waste place, where a handful of hemp seed can be sowed in spring and seed raised to add to suet and meat bones for use If the birds of winter, that will be a great help, since the seed is very rich in oil and a warming food for birds Neltje Blanchan especially requested in the writing of this me to urge book that every bird lover plant a few, low growing, thickly leaved evergreens among among the for winter sleeping quarters for the birds, the larger trees, junipers and red cedars, and arbor vitae, these to be put in the places deemed most sheltered and convenient for winter quarters To this, I add the plea that in every convenient corner you set a Russian mulberry as old as possible to begin with, and in a short time your complaints against the smaller, the cypresses SHALL Domestic lien three WE PAY OUR DEBT? 375 days before she died of old age, when nineteen years old birds for taking your cherries and strawberries be so reduced as to be negligible A recently published estimate of the average lifetime of birds allots to a wren three years, a thrush ten, a robin twelve, a lark thirteen, a blackbird twelve, a goldfinch fifteen, a canary fifteen, a pigeon twenty, a crane twenty-four, a sparrow hawk forty, a crow fifty, a heron fifty-nine This will gives to the birds in which a very short span of life we It are is most in interested our power to make this life longer and safer for those of our birds, upon which we are most dependent, those to which 376 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS we owe the we most highly While all of us are in softened mood and of a will to rectify many of the existing evils which we have endured for years, this question comes up things of among many other life prize questions of not nearly so much and economic importance In the writing of this book I have done my best Now is the time for concerted action on the part of everyone who reads it Shall we pay our debt to the birds? spiritual THE END INDEX OF BIRD IDENTIFICATIONS (The "A O U Check-list except of North American Birds" when otherwise is indicated) Bittern, Botaurus lentiginosis Blackbird (Purple Grackle), Quizcalus quiscula quiscula Blackbird, Red-winged, Agelaius phoeniceus phoeniceus Bluebird, Sialia sialis sialis Bobolink, Dolichonyx oryzivorus Bunting, Indigo, (See Indigo-bird) Bunting, Snow, Plectrophenax nivalis nivalis Buzzard, Turkey, Cathartes aura septentrionalis Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis Chaffinch (European), Fringilla coelebs (Coues) Chat, Icteria virens virens Chat, Yellow-breasted, Icteria virens virens Chewink, Pipilio erythrophthalmus Chickadee, Penthestes atricapillus Chippy, (See Sparrow, Chipping) Coot, Cinereous, Fulica amcricana Cowbird, Molothrus ater ater ^rane, Grus mexicana Creeper, Brown, Cerihia familiaris americana Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynckos Cuckoo, Black-billed, Coccyzus erythrophthalmus Cuckoo, Yellow-billed, Coccyzus americanus americanus Dove, Zenaidura macroura macroura Duck, Wood, Aix sponsa Eagle, Golden, Aquila chrysaetos Falcon, Dusky, (See Hawk, Sparrow), Flicker, Colaptes auratus luteus Fly-catcher, Crested, Myiarchus crinitus Gallinule, lonornis martinicus Gnat-catcher, Polioptila caerulea caerulea Goldfinch, Astragalinus tristis tristis 377 the authority used INDEX OF BIRD IDENTIFICATIONS 378 Goose, Wild, Branta canadensis canadensis Grackle, Purple (Blackbird), Quiscalus quiscula quiscula Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps Grosbeak, Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis cardinalis Grosbeak, Black-headed, Zamelodia melanocephala Grosbeak Evening, Hespcriphona respertina vespertina Grosbeak, Rose-breasted, Zamelodia ludoviciana Gull, Pagophila alba Hawk, Chicken, Accipiter cooperi Hawk, Red-shouldered, Bateo lineatus lineatus Hawk, Sparrow, Falco sparverius sparverius Heron, Blue, Ardea herodias herodias Hummingbird, Ruby-throated, Archilochus colubris Indigo-bird, Passerina cyanea Junco, Junco hyemalis hyemalis Killdeer, Oxyeehus vociferus Kingbird, Tyrannus tyrannus Kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon Kinglet, Ruby-crowned, Regulus calendula calendula Knot, Tringa canutus Lark, Pipit, Antlnis ludovicianus (Studor's "Birds of North America.") Linnet (Any greenish sparrow or warbler about the size of a goldfinch, miscalled "linnet" by country people, probably after the European linnet bred with canaries) Loon, Gavia inmer Martin, Progne subis subis Meadowlark, Sturnella magna magna Mockingbird, Southern, Mimus polyglottos polyglottos Xighthawk, Chordeiles virginianus virginianus Nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis carolinensis Oriole, Baltimore, Icterus galbula Orchard, Icterus spurius Oriole, Oven-bird, Seirus aurocapillus Owl, Arctic, Bubo virginianus subarcticus Owl, Barred, Strix varia varia Owl, Barn, Strix pratincola Owl, Great Horned, Bubo virginianus virginianus Owl, Sorcec-h, Otus asio Pelican, Pdeeamu asio crythrorhynchos Myiochanei virens Pheasant (Ring-necked) Phasianus torquatus (Reed's "Bird Guide")., l'ho