ilberry, blueberry, black haw, hobblebush, and
arrow-wood. In the way of fruit-bearing shade trees he recommends
sugar maple, flowering dogwood, white and cockspur thorn, native red
mulberry, tupelo, black cherry, choke cherry, and mountain ash. For
the same purpose he especially recommends the planting of the following
vines: Virginia creeper, bull-beaver, frost grape, and fox grape.

Such shrubs and vines are usually well stripped of their berries after
the first heavy snowfall. That is the time to begin feeding the birds
in earnest. The more food wisely placed where the birds can get it,
the more birds you will surely have in the winter. Seeds and grain,
with a judicious mixture of animal {238} fat, form the best possible
ration for the little feathered pilgrims. Rye, wheat, sunflower seeds,
and cracked corn, mixed together in equal parts and accompanied by a
liberal sprinkling of ground suet and beef scrap, make an excellent
food for birds at this season. This should be placed on shelves
attached to trees or buildings, or on oilcloth spread on the snow, or
on the ground where the snow has been scraped away. On one occasion
the writer attracted many birds by the simple method of providing them
with finely pounded fresh beef bones. Furnishing birds with food in
winter might well be made a pleasant and profitable duty of the
children who attend Sunday-school in rural churches that have
graveyards near.

Why should we not make a bird sanctuary of every city park and cemetery
in America? Why leave these places to the Sparrows, the Grackles, and
perhaps the Starlings, when Bluebirds and Thrushes are within hail,
eager to come if the hand of invitation be extended?

{239}

CHAPTER XII

TEACHING BIRD STUDY

A little after six o'clock one July morning on the campus of the
University of Tennessee, I stood near the centre of a semi-circle of
twenty-five school teachers whose expressions indicated a high state of
excitement, and whose fifty eyes were riveted on a scene of slaughter
but a few feet from them. For five minutes we had scarcely moved.
During this time the lives of thirty-two specimens of animal life had
been blotted out. The perpetrator of this holocaust was a creature
known to scientists as _Spizella socialis_--called by ordinary people
Chipping Sparrow. Its victims were small insects which but a moment
before were disporting themselves on the grass.

_Preparation of Teachers._--One teac