The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-13
HOW TO HELP
 OUR BIRDS By Winthrop Packard of the Massachusetts State Audubon Society.

Let us not think that our genera ton is the first one to study the wild birds. believe the study of them be- gan with the arrival of the first ex- p1orers and settlers on these shores and has been kept up ever since Proof of this comes to us in the traditions and folklore of bird music. find that that the earliest settlers were accusz- toned to set the music of our birds to words. The first settlers at Plymouth without doubt greeted the returning robins as harbingers of spring
 Now the robins song is in part q love song and in part 8 challenge the love song directed to the male sit- ting on the nest in the tree near by. the challenge to that other cock-robin on a. nearby tree who has been nak- ing eyessat her. Y ct, cariously euough, the robins song has been set to words that do not fit these emotions at all. The tradition has come down to us that the robin sings these words in ds- rision of the country doctor:-
 Kill him, cure him. give him phy- sic''
 Listen at dawn on almost any morn ing nowadays and you will hear mum erous robins singing just those words.
 You will note that robins and many more common this year than in pre- vious years. and I believe that you can thank the Audobon societies for that. Through their great labor and persistent activity the federal govern ment last year passed the Mclean Weeks bill. because of which all shooting of songbirds in the South was in history. The result was immediately appar ent this spring with the return ltof greatly increased numbers of birds. If these birds were of no other value to us than the beauty of their pres ence and the joy of their songs, this bill would still be worth to the world a thousand times the effort and labor and expense expended on it, but these birds are of great value to us all be- cause of their insect-eating habits and to protect them and encourage their presence is to solve an economic prob lem in. a. fine way. This protection should not only be carried out by law l in a large way as provided in the | Weeks-M Mclean bill and in the many excellent state laws which we have, 1 but each one of you should protect birds on your home grounds. They will repay you a hundredfold. not only by the joy of their presence but by eat ing the insects that otherwise are such | a plague.
 Even if you live in a city flat, it will pay you to help people in the country to protect the birds. More birds mean 1 more and better fruit and garden products. The protection of birds is lem.
 There are three direct and simple l ways in which one who has even a
 tiny backyard may protect the birds and so attract them to the place as 1 greatly to increase their mum bers. 1 This may be done at all seasons 1 with good results. It is especially need full in the winter-tine when the snow lies deep Our winter birds withstand I even the severest cold if well fed. But 1 when the snow covers the frozen in
 sects. dormant larvae, eggs. and seeds of weeds on which they naturally feed they often starve in great numbers | Feed them then in your yard and
 near your home, in the fields and
 woods if you will.
 Almost anything eatable is useful 1 Grain and scratch feed'' scattered or | trees will keep the quail, preasants
 grouse and host of smaller birds wei
 fed. Bread crumbs and chan from tht
 barn floor are cheap and useful. HemI
 and sunfower seed, other bird seed
 and especially nutmeasts are most at l tractive to many birds. With bits O 1 broken peanut you can coax chicka | dees and nuthatches to eat out of you 1 hand Very many people are success 1 full in this. and suet and split mar
 row-bones, refuse meat, are all eag
 erly eaten.
 i Many ingenious and useful app1i | ances have been devised for feeding
 the birds-food-tab1es food-sticks l food bells, trolley-car and weather l cock restaurants-and the birds enjo,
 them all But they approve as well
 hare spot tramp1ed in the snow
 though near dwellings it is we'll to fee 1 the birds on a raised platform of som
 sort-a board set upon 9. post if noth
 ing nore-lest cats find the feedin l place only too good hunting ground