The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-27
FIRES DRIVE
AWAY SONG BIRDS
Supervisor LANCE Cautions
Children Not to Start
Them in Groves.

D. Lange, supervisor of nature study
in the public schools of st. Paul, makeb
some valuable suggestions looking to
the protection of song birds. ThSe
suggestions are directed to the boys
and girls, who are very prone in the
spring to set fire to dead leaves or
rubbish, etc. Mr.. Lange says:
1.-TWO things are absolutely essen
tial for attracting our common song
birds, of which nature has given US
such a large number. The first is
permanent food supply; the second,
suitable nesting places. In considering
the protection of song birds it is much
easier and much more efficacious to
keep the birds where they are than to
bring them back after they have been
driven away.
Boys and young people generally
have a pernicious habit of setting fire
all things that will burn. Scarcely has
the first balmy day of spring arrived
than the air about the groves of our
suburbs is thick with the smoke Of
burning leaves, grass and brush. 1t
is sometimes good plan to burn the
dead grass on lawns and meadows, but
to allow fire to run through the groves
over other pieces of vacant land serves
no good purpose whatever. 1t is mere
WantOn, barbarOus destruCtiveness and
does a hundred times more to drive
away our song birds than all state
laws, bird protection societies and ar
tificial nesting boxes can do to attract
them. 1t destroys spiders and all kinds
Of insects that hide amongs the DEAD
leaves and in the vegetable mould, and
thus robS our best song birds of their
food during the early spring, when
food is still scarce. 1t kills all shrubs,
vines, seedlings and young trees, whose
bark is not yet thick enough to with
stand the heat of the fire, and thus
totally destroys the only nesting places
which a host of our best and most
beneficial song birds can use.
The groSbeaks, the thrashers, all
the thrushes, cat birds, tanagers and a
host of little Warblers and VeriOs will
only be found where there are vines,
bushes and young trees; for it is in
such localities that they can find suit
able nesting places and food for their
young. A number of these birds have
q beautiful, conspicuous plumage and
consequently do not like to expose
themselves much on a few large trees,
and none of them will go into artificial
nesting places.
But 1t is not only for this group Of
habit Of setting wood fires destroys
the nesting places. Another group Of
very useful birds, the woOdpeckers,
the beautiful bluebirds, the nuthatches
and wrens nest in stumps and old deJd
trees. Whenever the fire runs through
the woods the dry stumps and dead
trees catch fire and burn to the ground
and for another large group of birds
the region has become Uninhabitable,
because there are no nesting places.
All persons who are interested in
the protection Of our song birds who
like to listen to their music IA who
enjoy the flashes of their bright plum
age, should most emphaticalIy dis
courage this habit Of setting fire to ev-
erything that viii burn. The boys and
girls are just as fond of the birds as
their parents or teachers, but if they
would have song birds abundant
around their towns and suburbs they
must absolutely refrain from setting
the woods on fire. It seems that this
would be very good topic to put
before the boys and girls of our state
on our coming Bird and Arbor day.