Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-16
BIRD RESTAURANTS
Have Been Recently Well
Patronized.
WATCHING A GROUSE
TRYING TO FIND WHERE HE
SLEEPS AT NIGHT.
Manages to Keep Comfortable and
Warm in Bed Of
Snow. |,
Written for The Evening Star.

written Tor Inc Evening Sthr
Those of us who had established bird
restaurants premises were well
patronized during the cold weather of last
week. The deep snow had covered not only
the ground but the low-growing weeds,
shutting off the food supply of many spe-
cies, while zero weather made all appetites
more keen than usual Most of us served
free meals to juncos. chickadees and house
sparrows. and some of us had more dis
tinguished guests. Some had tree spar
rows and nuthatches, and a number were
visited by downy and few by hairy wood
peckers. Even the blue jays controlled
their suspicious long enough to allow them
to get share of the suet, and they got a
large share, too. for they broke off very
big pieces and flew away with them, until
some of us were afraid that suet would be
off before the other birds had dined. My
own favorite guest has been little chicka
dee with one leg-at least he only uses one
leg: he keeps the other we'll tucked UP
under his feathers that 1t is seldom seen.
Probably the frail member has been injured
in some way, and its wise little owner is
giving it every chance TO get we'll But tho
bird seems to suffer no inconvenience; he
flies well. stands up and pecks vigorously
al the suet tied to a branch Or nailed to
tray, or takes it in tiny bits, on the wing,
a humming bird takes nectar from
flower He can also cling to a 'twig upside
down. as neatly as his brethren He was
our first customer, and perhaps it Is this
fact which leads him to believe that he has
certain rights to maintain. At any rate,
he seems to consider 1t his privilege to feed
precisely when he chooses, and alone. If
he is pecking at a certain lump of suet, no
other chickadee is allowed on the same
branch until he has finished, but II he ar
rives at the restaurant when another bird
happens to be feeding, the first conner is
made to retire and wait until the one
legged chickadee has dined. In attending
to the wants of today, these birds do not
lose sight of tomorrow. After eating Few
bits of suet, they nearly always chip off a
larger piece which they fly away with and
store in the cracks of some apple trees
which grow near by.
Hunger Tames.
The birds are noticeably tanner during the
cold weather; no doubt, as in the case of
men, hunger forces them to take greater
risks than would be necessary at other
times in order to obtain food. The crows
are particularly daring, and will come al
most up to the back door for corn or bread,
and even the birds which are raging for
themselves in the fields and woods, will
allow one to approach closer than at other
times rather than abandon their feeding
grounds. A flock of fifty gold finches which
1 came upon last week as they were busy
among the seed-bearing tops of some tall
weeds sticking out above the snow allowed
me to almost walk about among them,
intent were they on the important business
at hand. A flock of four pine grosbeaks,
too, feeding on berries permitted me to
come within six feet, and even then showed
little fear.
Ruffed Grouse.
But the birds which occupied most of my
attention last week were the ruffed grouse.
These hardy game birds do not seem to
mind the severity of the weather; their
snug, tight-fitting plumage protects them
from the cold, and the horny fringes which
grow on their toes at this season enable
them to walk with reasonable comfort In
the snow when it is not too deep 1t is in
teresting to follow the grouse trails leading
in and out of the underground. If the snow
is shallow the footprints remind one of
those made by bantam hen but If it Is
deeper the bird sinks In and its body makes
furrow as 1t walks along, while only a
general idea Of the shape and position of
the individual footprints Is to be obtained
from the trail. But 1t may always be dis
tinguished from the trail of any quadruped
by its termination, If in no other way No
matter how far grouse may walk. it will
take wing 1t last. and usually tie observer
may see on the snow the imprints of the
wing feathers, made at the first downward
stroke of the wings. Moreover, at the end
OF the trail there is usually rounded de-
preston, made by the body of the grouse
as II stoops down before the upward spring
Sleeping Quarters.
But even more than in the trails was 1
interested in the sleeping quarters of the
grouse during the very cold weather AS
rule, these places may be located by the
presence in the otherwise unbroken snow
of two holes, foot more apart, one
made by the bird he plunged downward
from the wing and the other as he sprane
upward and broke through the snow from
beneath. Between the two holes there Is a
tunnel, and it is here that a grouse has
passed the night. He does not ALWAYS
plunge In from the wing, for found few
places where he had walked in through the
side of drift. One evening / Law in a
snow bank In pine wood from shutdown
untll dark in the hope of seeing a grouse
crop INTO the snow; but l did not see one.
although l think l heard several Newt
morning l went back to the wood. and
while examining the snow I found single
hole, indicating that a grouse had entered
but had not yet come out I approacbe1
cautiously, and had almost reached the de-
preston, when with a mighty whirr a great
brown grouse burst through the level sur
lace OF the snow in front of me and sped
away through the pine woods cleverlv
lodging the tree trunks. And looking
down, saw two holes, nearly two feet
apart and on either side of the farther one
was the clear impression of a grouses
wing. ERNh EST HAnOLD BAYNES