Page:Bird-lore Vol 04.djvu/93

 72 Bird - Lore

out the varieties of trees that attracted them and the causes that have driven them away. The winter—killing of hemlock hedge, thick as a wall, the replacing of a tangle of old spireas and weigelias by trim individual shrubs, the death, trorn the approach of til» lage,of.1 crown of cedars that made a blue- green spot above the snow in a waste pas- tute, the formalizing of a cat-tail antl bush fringed spring to be a Cementaedged tluclt- pnndiall have to tell. The former of tlte slothfulness of man. who does not replace, as nature, inexorable, does, the

their tale

latter the taint of commercialism where it is so often unnecessary. the trade spirit that insists upon a material yield instead of the richer one of beauty,

Any one can buy good fat ducks at so muclt per pound in the market, but money alone cannot create the pool that sends out the hylas' greeting in March and from its sheltering trees and bushes the music of Red-wing, Marslt Wren. Water Thrush, and Veery echoes through the spring dawns and twilights. I am very glad that I shall not be alive when the world‘s water is all utilized, the marshes drained. the weeds sub~ titled, a universal insecticide invented, all waste-land reclaimcdr \Vhat a horrible, lonely, selﬁsh world it will be.

If you replant from the hird standpoint, beside trees you must have bushes and vines in a four to one proportion.

The bird may sing in a lofty tree top and a few species nest there, but it is either close to the ground in th: small tree. or impene- trable bush or hedge that is the nesting place. the waiting room where rests be- tween excursions tor food and during rainy

weather.

As a part of our families are winter resi- dents there should he evergreens with the lower branches left to trail on the ground. as well as other thick underbrush for shelter.

Neatness, cutting up, and relentless prun- ing and shaping of shrubs and trces are doubtless very moral processes in their way and may he sometimes necessary when insects and blight gain mastery in a garden, just as di niecting ﬂuids are in an epidemic, but they are quite as oltensiye to birds as pop. guns.

The taller deciduous trees, clms,maples, birches, etc., offer in summer the shelter of shade and the food always to he found in the greenery and bark covering of branches, bttt during family life it is tn the lower fruit trees full of convenient nesting places of knot-hole and crotch where the majority of birds congregate And after a storm the birds may always be seen ﬂying from the low evergreens and wild hedges

“But,” you say, "we cannot plant old orchardH" No, but every village should cherish the few that remain as public avi- aries. For nowhere else can those familiar birds, so dear to us all, be sheltered, and if the orchard is inclosed by a stone wall or snake fence in whose protection a hedge of aspcns. sumachs, red cedar, hackbetry, cider and wild roses, batherries and tall blackberries has sprung up, with all the branches trimmed and draped by clinging fox, anti frost grapes, waxwork, Virginia creeper, clematis

Such a place is 2 birds‘ paradise, and in planting to please the birds keep it in mind. Small places can easily be fenced by either athorvitze, hemlock, or ptivet hedges; stone walls concealed and heautiﬁed by berry- hearing bushes, and by vines that not only offer shelter but food as well. Lacking wild vines, plant nursery stock; half a hundred plants of Concord grapes may be cheaply had and scattered liberally about the fences and outbuildings ot every rnodcst home.

Then there is the cheerful Chinese honey- suckle that is sturdy and stout of limb. I would ltave you plant it everywhere as l have, until it riots and ﬂourishes over porch, trellis, walls, bushes and in masses on the groundI like the veritst weed.

A clean vine is this honeysuckle. and one that never injures the painted house wall against which it may be trained: its ﬂowers, beginning in June, give a tropic quality to the night air, offer a feast alike to the Hum- ming-birds by day and the night-ﬂying hawk moths. The leaves of dark rich green give shelter from heat and cold and cling on bravely until past midwintet, March even ﬁnding some still clinging to the south porch. As for the glistening blackberries, many a breakfast do they give

vines,