Evening star., 1936-01-30

ACdI OA 1Ay AlhObaAAA dAAA Ak0'S
often admired and wondered at the ease
Interestingly on any and all subjects, but
the article that evoked our sincerest ad-
miration was one written by you about
two or three years ago on the subject Of
a lost collar button.
1--WE came to the conclusion then and
there that any one who could write so
interestingly about such an uninteresting
article as a collar button must be real
genius, and since then we have been your
fans.
"You recent articles about feeding the
birds prompt me to send the inclosed
snapshots, taken in our back yard. The
feeding cage was built especially for the
little sparrows, which are my favorites.
II found that by just throwing the
seed in the yard the sparrows stood very
little chance of getting any of it, as the
ubiquitous starlings and really exasperat-
ing pigeons made such an onslaught be-
fore the h-maligned sparrows got
anything.
Some of the smaller starlings do man.
age to squeeze through the meShes OF the
cage, but they do not seem to care for
scratch feed and just eat the finely
chopped suet. Not to exclude the pigeons
and starlings too entirely, always throw
out some seed and larger pieces Of suet
for them.
1.-THE only pretty bird in this neigh
borhood is the bluejay and two Of them
come every morning for salted peanuts
that are really intended for the squirrels.
A handful of cracked mixed nuts are
put out every morning for the latter,
for I noticed that if they are left whole
they are always buried and they may
never find them again. Should add, the
squirrels and beautiful, but wild yellow
cat that comes every day to be fed, never
go near the feeding cage.
I" hope I have not taken up too
much of your time with this, but
thought you might be interested in the
bird feeder. Very truly-A. c."
X r. X
"Upperville, Va.
Dear Sir: have been much inter-
ested in reading your articles in The
Evening Star. and especially those about
feeding the birds, for I, too, love the
birds and enjoy feeding them.
I'm one of your articles some time ago
you spoke of how expensive it is, with
wild bird seed S or 6 cents pound, but
we do not have to feed them bird seed,
for there are many things they like that
are much cheaper.
Chicken raisers would have to go out
of business if they had to pay that much
for their little chicks food and what is
good for chickens is good for birds. So
next time 60 to poultry feed store and
you can save half of what you have to
pay for bird seed.
There is mixture of finely cracked
corn and wheat called baby chick feed
that all the seed-eating birds like very
much. Then there is a mixture OF
coarsely cracked corn. whole grains of
wheat. oats, buckwheat and some sun
flower seed. This is called scratch feed
and sells for about 81 hundred pounds.
1T is good to have some whole corn
for the cardinals and jays. The starlings
do not eat it, so I scatter it around under
the bushes. some distance from the
feeder, SO the cardinals and jays can eat
in peace away from the sparroWs and
chattering starlings.
Cheapest of all feeds is whole corn.
The cardinals crack the grains in their
powerful little bills.
Il have not been bothered with star
lings until this last cold weather. They,
and all the seed-eating birds, like corn
meal very much. In freezing weather
Gampen it with just enough warm water
to stick it together in little crumbly
Jumps, SO even if it freezes they can
still swallow the crumbs.
when the temperature is above freez-
ing use enough water to make firm
dough. They like it even better this way,
as it slips down their throats more
easily.
Il have tried giving 1t to them dry,