HOW TO ATTRACT — aU os] NELTJE BLANCHAN ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY Cornett UNIVERSITY Gift of Wiliam E. Davis, Jr. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DATE DUE HOW TO ATTRACT THE BIRDS A cedar wax-wing in a choke-cherry tree. (Chapter 3) Frontispiece HOw TO ATYRACT THE BIRDS AnD OTHER TALKS ABOUT BIRD NEIGHBOURS BY NELTJE BLANCHAN Author of ‘‘ Bird Neighbours,’’ ‘' Birds that Hunt and Are Hunted ’’ and ‘‘ Nature's Garden’? NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1902 COPYRIGHT, 1902 By DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY Published October, 1902 Mount Pleasant Press J. HORACE MCFARLAND COMPANY HARRISBURG * PENNSYLVANIA TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE J. How to Invire Bird NEIGHBOURS. ; i I Il. (HE Rupy-THROAT’s CATERERS . : : 3 : 19 III. Brrp ARCHITECTURE . : ; : , : : 37 IV. Home Lire. : : ‘ é : : : : : 65 V. Nature's First Law : 3 : : : gI Vi. Soncs WirHouT Wopens . ; 5 : ‘ ‘ ee Tes VII. Wuy Birps CoME AND Go. j 4 : 5 . TAL VIII. Wuat Birps Do ror Us ; ; d ; 2 “068 IX. Some NATURALIZED FOREIGNERS . : ‘ . 205 INDEX : : ; 3 : : : 5 : ‘ - (221 ‘HOW TO INVITE BIRD NEIGHBOURS HOW TO ATTRACT THE BIRDS CHAPTER I HOW TO INVITE BIRD NEIGHBOURS Tue birds’ point of view differs scarcely at all trom our own in the essentials in life: Protection from enemies, the preservation of the family, a sheltered home, congenial environment, abundant tood, and pure water—these natural rights the birds, like men, are ever seeking. Each spring day bringing as it does hosts of feathered travellers from the Tropics and the Southern States where they have passed the winter, how can we induce some of them to pause on dhe journey long enough to investigate our garden attractions and happily to become our neighbours for the summer? Some birds there are—the wild ducks and hawks, for examp!e—that no amount of coaxing would induce to confide in man—the worst enemy or the best friend every creature has. But very many of the smaller birds, relying more on the p How to Attract the Birds safety and abundance of food near human settle- ments than on the more doubtful protection that deep remote forests afford, need little persuasion to Photograph by Brounell Cedar wax-wings postpone nesting till midsummer remain. John Burroughs was not the only one to feel disappointed at the scarcity of birds about an Adirondack Camp as compared with his village home. How to Invite Bird Neighbours A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF OUR GARDENS If we realized how carefully and how hepe- fuily our gardens and orchards are scrutinized every spring, and on what details judgment upon them is passed by the sharp-eyed inspectors, we might, so easily, with a little forethought, arrange them to the taste of the home seekers. Even in trolley nettled suburbs and in very small door-yards it is possible to make some birds, at least, feel conscious of their welcome. Large estates can be converted into great natural aviaries at one-tenth the cost of a hot- house. Cost, did I say? Why, one pair of chick- adees in an orchard will destroy more insect eggs than the most expensive spraying machine. It takes birds a surpris- ingly short time to resort where no gunning 1s allowed and very quickly, too, they learn where to avoid the silent deadly aur-rifles and sling-shots of small boys ; where prowling cats are permitted to lurk in ambush, and red squirrels, field mice and snakes play the role of villain in the tragedies of the nests. At the outset, every tamily must choose between a cat and the wild birds as pets; only heart-breaks result trom the cruel com- bination. Photograph from life by Carlin An early nest-builder ; the bronzed grackle How to Attract the Birds HOUSE HUNTING When a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, mating is the birds’ one absorbing idea. Some of them, having taken partners for life in previous years, or having found mates on the Photograph by Carlin Blue-birds are peering about for some hole in an old hollow tree or fence journey northward, are ready to begin housekeeping as soon as they reach our home grounds. Others, though still in the agonies of jealousy or the bliss of wooing, do not long delay the serious work of life. Only the cedar waxwings and goldtinch postpone nesting until midsummer, when their prin- cipal food supplies—choke-cherries and thistle seeds most abundant. But even in March, blue- birds are peering about for seme hole in an old hollow tree or fence rail to shelter their nest from 6 How to Invite Bird Neighbours rude spring winds. Flocks of iridescent grackles or blackbirds, as they are also called, wheeze and creak their discussions over suitable sites in the top of our tall evergreens. The robins’ clear, ringing, military call is heard again from the apple trees and lawn. Dusky little =phabes , timidly investigate the | beams under our piazza roofs; swallows skim above our barns. A little later come Jenny Wren and Sir Christo- pher to dispute with the ubiquitous sparrow the right of possession to every sheltered cranny : the shutters of our ; houses, overhanging By REINS AIAG OES SE OE eaves, bird boxes and tree hollows. With a temper out of all proportion to its diminutive size, the house wren dashes at any intruder near the chosen home, chattering scoldings into his very ears until even the sparrow is glad to leave the place. ‘Then how quickly bubbles up the rollicking song of ecstatic joy from the tiny victor’s throat! In a free fight the bluebird, too, whose disposition is by ne means so heavenly as his Feathers. worsts the sparrow. Robins pay no more attention to the teasing impudence of that dingy little upstart than a St. Bernard pays to the yelps of small curs. gourd-vine How to Attract the Birds THE SPARROW QUESTION Indeed, a great deal of nonsense is talked about sparrows driving away other birds. Like the down- trodden Italian and other peasants from the Old World, the sparrows are prepared to live here where others would starve. They kill no birds. We are too wont _ to attribute the results of our own misdeeds or shortcomings—the bar- barities of millinery fashions, wanton slaugh- ter masquerading as | sport, the lack of good bird laws and the en- forcing of them, where such exist—upon these troublesome, noisy, quarrelsome little feath- ered gamins. Fitted to survive after centuries of competitive struggle, they cannot be extermi- nated. As well try to eliminate that other trium- phant European immigrant, the daisy, from our fields. Just as the introduction of the honey bee from Europe must cause our native flowers and in- sects to undergo certain changes of structure and habit, so the introduction of the English sparrow means change, adaptation, to our native birds. In spite of the sparrows, there is already noticeable a A basket house 8 How to Invite Bird Neighbours Photograph by Brownell Poke-weed berries large increase in the number of song birds wherever protective laws, reinforced by Audubon Societies and public ehaMiene have operated for even a tew years. Sparrows drive no birds from England. ATTRACTIVE TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES Protection and home being assured, the food supply becomes a burning question by June when, in well-regulated bird homes, there are little, gaping, clamouring mouths thrust above the nest every few minutes throughout the long day. In planting our gardens and lawns, why not remember the needs of the birds, if we really wish them about ? That birds love trees, large old ones and plenty of them, groves of mixed species, rather than a single 9 How to Attract the Birds kind, underbrush, shrubbery and tangled vines to hide and hunt among, no one need be told; but certain trees and bushes attract certain birds more than others. Some trees there are—the cotton- wood for example— which, from the bird’s standpoint, are useful merely as perches, but others furnish food, too, or favourite nesting sites, therefore, why not choose them? If the bird-lover’s door-yard is so small as to hold only one tree, no other one will attract so many feathered visitors as the Russian mulberry. Robins, catbirds, tan- agers, grosbeaks, wax- wings, orioles and thrushes are not by any means the only ap- preciative visitors with the poor sense to prefer the insipid, sweet fruit, to the best berry God ever made. Scientific farmers are now systematically planting mulberry trees, the shad bush and June berry as counter attractions to their strawberry beds, whose fruit ripens at the same time. Myriads of flies, ants, wasps and other insects that come to sip the syrup of over-ripe mulberries, draw insectivorous birds, as well as more dainty feasters. Probably the next best food tree for birds is the 1O Photograph by Brownell Berries of the American holly How to Invite Bird Neighbours choke cherry, whose racemes of small black fruit ripen from July to September. Here congregate large flocks of crested cedar wax-wings, more properly called cherry birds one thinks when the distended gullets of these sociable gourmands are observed through the opera glass. The flickers, which seek the tree at dawn, robins and cuckoos, leave few cherries for hungry migrants on their way southward in autumn. There is always a guid pro quo in nature. Of course the birds are not the re- cipients of purely disinterested favours. By dropping undigested seeds far and wide, and so starting new colonies of plants, they repay their hosts for every favour received. Tree and bush dog- woods, mountain ash, spruces, pines, juniper, hawthorn, viburnum, elder, black alder, wild plums, blackberries, cherries, crab apples, cur- rants, raspberries, grapes and gooseberries, cat- brier, burning — bush, moonseed, wild yam, buckthorn, sumach, | holly, bittersweet, wild q, a, rose, wintergreen, par- : Photograph by Brownell tridge vine, hackberry, Arrow-wood berries (October) snowberry, kinnikinic, auralia, honeysuckle bushes and twiners, mock orange, hop vine, huckleberries, Vir- ginia creeper, clematis, bayberries, shad-bush—these 11 How to Attract the Birds are among the many wild and cultivated trees, shrubs and vines, whose fruit attracts the birds. Some berries and seeds ripen early insummer, some in autumn, others through the winter and last until the migrants of the following spring eagerly bolt them on their way North. In the flower garden many seeds are pecked at, but the sunflowers’, which give all the finch tribe a rich feast, are prime favourites. Gold- finches, however, ap- parently prefer the blue corn-flowers or ragged sailors, which should be sown in a corner of _ the wild garden if not Photograph ty Brown! for their beauty’s sake Bittersweet berries that furnish fall then certainly for their provender for the birds seeds. That jewelled atom, the ruby-throated humming bird, delights in so many flowers and plays so im- portant a part in their cross-fertilization that he requires a separate chapter. Birds can endure intense cold on full stomachs, but their winter larder must often be very lean. Never is hospitality so keenly appreciated as then ; never are birds so welcome to us. Trimmings of beefsteak, lumps of suet and a rind of pork tied on the branches of trees near enough to the home to be watched by its inmates, attract some very inter- 12 How to Invite Bird Neighbours esting winter neighbours: chickadees, nuthatcnes, tufted titmice, brown creepers, woodpeckers and blue jays. Minced raw meat, waste canary, hemp and sunflower seed, buckwheat, cracked oats and corn, crumbs and the sweepings from the hay loft, scattered over the ground, make a delectable hash tor feathered boarders with varied appetites. Food that can be put in dishes on piazza roofs or on shelves in trees either winter or summer for such soft-billed birds as robins, catbirds, mocking birds, thrushes and orioles—the most delightful and tuneful of bird neighbours—is made of equal parts of corn- meal, pea-meal and German moss into which enough molasses and melted suet or lard have been stirred to make a thick batter. If this mixture is fried for halt an hour, it can be packed away in jars and will keep tor weeks. Grated carrot or minced apple is a welcome addition. Last autumn, when a New York family was seated around the break- fast table, a youn. “pape oh woodthrush flew into Rhateenal hp Howse the dining-room through Harriss OE the Virginia: eeeeper the open window. It was a straggler from a flock on its way South. Weary, hungry and faint with travel, it alighted on the frame of a picture which, 13 How to Attract the Birds by a strange and beautiful coincidence, was one of Audubon’s old prints. Some branches of bright alder berries happily stood in a vase on the mantel below. Fear was instantly forgot- ten in the joy of feasting. After a hearty meal of the familiar fruit, and deep draughts of water from a cup placed near the ber- ries, the thrush de- parted as it came, but refreshed for its travels. If this den- izen of the woods could forget its nat- ural shyness under such unnatural conditions, how much more readily will invitations to Feast be accepted a/ fresco ? A combination bath tub and drinking pan THE MOST INTERESTING SPOT ON YOUR GROUNDS In regions where there are no brooks or lakes, birds must sometimes fly many miles for a drink. Perhaps more young birds die for lack of water than from any other cause. Not even a mulberry tree attracts so many visitors as a bath tub, which also serves them as a drinking pan, for they are not squeamish ! 14 How to Invite Bird Neighbours But see to it that the pan is raised above the reach of cats; only on large estates where none are kept is it safe to sink the pan into a lawn. Birds cannot fly far with wet feathers. ‘They must first dry and preen them. For this reason, as well as for the cool shade they afford, trees and shrubbery should partially screen the drinking water. Where a small stream cannot trickle into a fountain, fresh water poured in a pan daily, or even twice a day at midsummer, is very gratefully appreciated when many a rare, shy bird, its bill open and gasping from the heat, seeks refreshment. If the water be deep, the birds will let it alone through fear of drowning when they stand on the brim, and tip forward as they must for a draught. A pan shallow enough for wading, or a deeper one sup- plied with stones for the drinkers to stand on safely, furnishes more interesting sights to a household and pure fun than any other object you can watch through- out a season. Chil- Ey dren enjoy it keenly. as DARED OSH Me: SEO 2s eat : 0 a starch box Sixty-nine different species of birds, many rare warblers and migrants among them, came in one season to drink on a 15 How to Attract the Birds suburban lawn, although a tiny aggressive wren telt cocksure that he alone owned that basin. HOUSES TO LET In our over-conventional gardens hollow trees or one with so much as a partially decayed branch A simple type of bird box such as the flicker, the sapsucker, the red-headed, downy and hairy woodpeckers, bluebirds, martins, wrens, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, the smaller owls, crested flycatchers, and some other birds love to nest in, are cut down; but what substitutes for these natural shelters do we provide ? A short log sawed in two, the halves hollowed out in the centre and nailed together again with an 16 How to Invite Bird Neighbours Bird houses that a child can make Ly How to Attract the Birds entrance to the cavity on one side of the log, is a pattern that any village carpenter or schoolboy can adapt to the tiny wren and the large woodpecker. Wooden starch boxes, provided with sloping roofs and covered with bits of bark, may be divided into two compartments with an entrance and perches at either end, although a one-room cabin is preferable, for birds love privacy at the nesting season, however large may be their flocks at other times. The ten- ement for twenty families is a modern city attain- ment for humans to which few birds aspire. There- fore, do not make many-roomed houses or put more than one log cabin, can, gourd or box in one tree. Lodgings should be in readiness very early in the spring, lest a pair of hopeful feathered house-hunters slip by, unable to find a home. A drinkirg shell above the reach of cats 18 THE RUBY-THROAT’S CATERERS CHAPTER II THE RUBY-THROAT'S CATERERS Wuar tempts the ruby-throated humming-bird to travel every spring from Central America as far north as the Arctic Circle, leaving behind him for a season those tropical delights so dex to four hun- dred or more stay-at-home relatives while he, the sole representative of this charming New World family found east of the Mississippi and north of Florida, spends half his life among us in voluntary exile? How it stirs the imagination to picture the solitary, tiny migrant, a mere atom of bird life, moving above the range of human sight through the vast dome of sky, “lone wandering but not lost”! Borne swiftly onward by rapidly vibrating wings that measure barely two inches in length, he covers the thousands of miles between his winter home and his summer one by easy stages and arrives at his chosen destination, weather permitting, at approximately the same date year after year. Why does he come North? One of the enlarging ideas gained through the study of Nature is that the same primal motives govern the actions of plant, bird, beast and man alike,—that all sentient beings act intelligently at