Page:Bird-lore Vol 07.djvu/20

A New Year Suggestion
By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT
WE are supposed to encircle each new year with a frame of good resolutions all pointing progressively in the direction of new aims and hopes. The pessimist says: "There is no new year; tomorrow is as today and all arbitrary divisions of time are purely commercial arrangements." I do not agree with this person; the so-called last day of the old year and the first of the new have a strong moral effect upon us. We clear our desks of unanswered letters, pay our bills, and begin life anew. If our interest in birds and their protection has waned in late autumn and early winter, we feel a new impetus. The shortest day has passed, spring is ahead of us. What shall we do to earn the joy of it when it comes? There is legislation to be watched, there are laws to be enforced, people to be persuaded, children to be taught; but in spite of these various duties, two practical needs equal them all. As it is inevitable and desirable that the land should be peopled and tilled, the birds' leaseholds of their hereditary haunts run out slowly but surely, and we must supply them with food and shelter, even as we do the red men on the reservations that have been allotted them. It is not enough to say, "We will see that you are not destroyed, we will tell the world of your good deeds, that it may pause and admire " — we must, at least, place homes and a livelihood within their reach. Our editor has wisely made this issue a Bird -house number, and if any one expects to have bird -dwellings ready for occupancy in April, they should be made and placed in the month of February, that they may become a bit weathered and a part of their surroundings before the return of the first migrants. As to these houses themselves, they may be of many shapes and patterns, but a few simple rules apply to them all. In making a bird -house, try to study both box and location from the point of view of the species of bird you hope may occupy it, not from your own standpoint of a pretty bit of color in a picturesque location. You will notice that bird -hotels, full of impossible and draughty rooms with openings at both ends, are very seldom tenanted, save by squirrels and English Spar- rows, and as we have no conspicuous or gaily colored nests, we should take this hint of color protection in the making of bird-houses. For this work there are no materials so suitable as weathered boards and sections of logs and tree trunks with the natural bark securely fastened in place. In the process of rebuilding a shed or two and replacing some old dead hedges with new growth, I found that the haunts of my Robins had been (2)