Page:Bird-lore Vol 06.djvu/234

 Bird-Life of a Swiss City

By REV WENDELL PRIME

S BIRD-LORE'S work relates to the protection, as well as the study of birds, I am encouraged to send you a few lines in regard to the way in which the birds fare in Ziirich. the largest, and in some

respects the most important, city in Switzerland. Since the first of the yearl have occupied a room on the ﬁrst ﬂoor of a house in one of the most frequented residence quarters of the city. Observing the pro- vision made for the birds by many of my neighbors. I fastened to the railing of the veranda, upon which a glass door opens. a small. open bird-house. In this l placed a dish with bread-crumbs and another with water. I also fastened to one of the veranda posts a "food-giver," which is a stick about one foot long from which are suspended, by short cords, a wooden Cup containing hirdvseed, a net-work box containing walnut-kernels, and the half-shell of a walnut containing suet. lmv mediately my restaurant attracted numerous customers. especially Sparv rows. which are not so pugnacinus as their American relatives. They did not prevent numbers of Chaﬂinches or Reechﬁnks (Fungi/la ru’lvlir) from having their daily share of the spoils. These beautiful birds. by their color and song, are a continual joy in the streets and parks and gardens. But the most important visitor at the bird-house, [tom the very beginning of the year, was the Blackbird or Amsel (Tun/u: morale). a black Thrush. about the size of our Robin and a much finer singer. His presence was respected by the smaller birds, but he was not intolerant. Though he occupied pretty much all the best part of the little house. the others were able to feed at the sides and corners. At the "food-giver." only a few feet distant. I had a totally difierent Company. For many weeks it was patronized exclusively by the Meiser, the relatives of our Chickadees and Tits. of which half a dozen species are Common in middle Europe. My visitors were the Kohlmeiser (Parur major). about the size of our Chickadees, but with much beauty of varied color. Alighting on the edge of the seed-cup. they clean it out to the very bottom. Alighting on the stick. with two or three twitches of the beak they pull up the net»work bag and. holding it with the feet on the stick, they hammer like Woodpeckers at the walnutvkernels. in the same way they reach the suspended shell with suet. but they use this only occasionally. In the latter part of March. the "food-giver" became the resort of another visitor. the Grilnﬁnk (Fringil/a (Maris). They had no difﬁculty in managing the seed—cup or the walnut»hag. Sometimes two pairs would be at work at the "food-giver" at the same time. They are the only birds. except Meiser. which have made any attempt to use it. All these live kinds oi birds continued

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