The Children's Book of Birds — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Children's Book of Birds
John Stuart Mill · en
A person living in the country, wishing to draw the birds about his
place, should begin by protecting it. Cats should not be allowed to come
near, English sparrows should be kept down, and boys who shoot or throw
stones should be banished from the vicinity.
Next, trees and shrubs that birds like, for nesting and for food, should
be set out. For nesting, a very attractive place for the smaller species
is a thick hedge of bushes, the thicker and closer the better.
Nesting-boxes nailed up in trees please many, and evergreen trees will
draw some that would not come otherwise. For food, various berry-bearing
shrubs and trees should be provided, such as chokecherry, shadberry,
mulberry, and others.
In a town or city, besides shrubs that birds like, a high fence, with a
top that cats cannot walk on, is desirable, and a readiness to go to
their assistance is soon appreciated.
A friend told me a few days ago of a family of wood thrushes who nested
last summer in the yard of her house in the city of Orange, N. J. The
birds soon found out that some of the family would come to drive away
strange cats which came in. After they learned that, when a cat appeared
they would give a peculiar cry, unlike any other heard from them. On
hearing this, one of the family always hurried out and drove the enemy
away.
If the birds could not get any response from a call at the kitchen door,
they would fly to the front of the house, perch on the piazza rail, and
call till some one came out. All through nesting-time they thus called
on their friends for protection, and the delight the family had over the
nest and the friendly birds amply repaid them for their trouble.
The one great necessity, in both city and country, is water for drinking
and bathing. It should be in a shallow dish. The rough saucer of a
flower-pot is best, because the bird's feet do not slip on it, and the
edge is broad and round and easy to perch on.
Next best is an earthen dish, with clean pebbles in the bottom, to
prevent slipping, which frightens them. Water should never be more than
two inches deep, but should always be clean, and fresh two or three
times a day.
No food should be offered in summer, because we want them to get their
natural food of worms and seeds.
In the winter it is different. They should have food regularly. But once
used to having their wants supplied, they will depend upon it, and
suffer and probably starve, if they are neglected or forgotten. So one
should be very sure he will not get tired of it, before he teaches them
to expect food.
To feed them safely, a shelf must be placed out of the reach of cats and
bad boys. On the sill of a window is a good place, or the roof of a
piazza, or a little balcony. Breakfast should be served to them at the
same hour every day, and they will soon know when to come for it.
For food, they will eat any table scraps of meat, and vegetables, and
bread, chopped fine, and most kinds of grain, broken up, or crushed, for
the smaller birds.