Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1911-03-29
How Our Birds Spend the winter.
IBy Mabel osgood Wright. Reprinted from
Bird Lore.

=
Bird Lore.
/ In the bird world there is supposed to
be no class distinction, no rich, no poor;
all are equipped alike for the battle OF life
by instinct. Yet those of us who have
followed the lives Of even q score Of the
most familiar birds throughout the year
must confess that they are made either
hard or pleasant by circumstances OF birth
very much like our own.
From our viewpoint in the middle and
selves roughly in two groups the summer
and tine permanent residents. Pick half
dozen birds from each Of these groups;
consider their comings and goings. You
will presently see that neither among
birds nor among men are all born free and
equal, and that the traveller on the wing
is as much linked to Law and the potency
OF heredity - the wearer OF shoes.
The birds that we know % summer
residents, such % the Baltimore oriole,
scarlet tanager, bobolink, barn swallow,
wood thrush and rose breasted grosbeak,
really enjoy two summers, the same rs
they wear two changes OF clothing during
the year.
When the spring impulse, let loose by
hemisphere, it finds the birds that come
to.us for their home making within our
borders, becauseSit is the homestead OF
their tribe, already on the wing. There
are perils by land and SEQ in this journey,
long flights and fastings and bufletings;
but when at last they arrive it is usually
to find good marketing and . roof-tree
waiting.
OF course, there are sometimes ill-timed
journeys, when winter: has given false
alarm Of retreat and, coming back, locks
up the larder, and the tired wayfarers
perish by the way-but this Is the excep-
tion, not the rule. Arriving in their sum-
mer haunts, these birds have period Of
ecstatic song and courtship before settling
down to the real labors OF raising one, two,
or sometimes, as with the house wrens,
three broods.
After the breeding season comes period
of enforced rest, called the molting time.
While the nest worn feathers are being
changed, the birds at this season are en-
ervated and lacking the strength for long
flight they NOPE and gossip Eyes, I've
heard them, OF this I'm positive) in we'll
leafed shade, all the while eating well OF
the plenty of late summer; for August,
the lazy month, is the time that Nature
has set apart for the feather changing
process.
Then follows two months or more OF the
citement Of fiocking and the southwark
journey; and, when winter comes to us,
these summer birds are entering upon q
second and tropical summer-a vacation
season without care or responsibility,
from which they will finally emerge re-
fresbed and provided with new spring
garments for the return fight.
But what OF the other birds, winter
residents with us or wandering visitors
alike? Their summer cares are the same
as those that fly before the frost that they
must face, compelled by force outside OF
the region OF their own will.
Take, for example, the tree sparrow,
downy woodpecker, American goldfinch
the slender billed brown creeper, the
dainty redpoll, and q score OF others, in
GLIDING the ruffed grouse. What is their
vacation season and how is it spent? In
what, il similar condition existed
among human beings, would be consid-
cred time OF pinching economy akin to
famine, and the enduring Of which
not only patiently but cheerfully by men
would be called heroism. But as birds do
not push trembling hands in our faces and
clamor for charity, we forget their needs,
and they too often disappear, deprived Of
natural food and shelter by the very march
Of the civilization OF which we are proud.
II they cannot speak for themselves,
their friends should never cease to do it for
them in the same old words, winter after
winter. 'tDo not clear away the wild
field, scatter grain sweepings in likely
places, fasten suet to your orchard tree,
and spread . lunch counter under your
window out of the reach Of cats. Do not
use that irresponsible argument, 'sThere
are never any birds in winter where
live;n for IL there are mono the response
bility 10 yours for not aiding them to be
there. For we are all keepers OF our
brother, in one sense or another, and the
larger brotherhood includes all forms of
sensate life. When we deliberately shirk
responsibility we have ceased to live in
the best sense.
1t 10 rot too late; begin now, feed the
hungry BIRDS and g you do it study the