. Our winter birds, how to know and how to attract them . re farmore abundant than those which require a particularkind of haunt, nesting-site and food. Just as a manwho can get on well anywhere is much more apt tosucceed than one who is unhappy and uncomfortableunless he can have things exactly as he wants them. The secret of the English Sparrows success ishis generalized habits. He seems equally at homein the city or country, on cobble streets, or in thebarnyard; he eats almost anything and appears torelish it, and any place that will hold his nestingmaterial suits him for a home. In attempt
. Our winter birds, how to know and how to attract them . re farmore abundant than those which require a particularkind of haunt, nesting-site and food. Just as a manwho can get on well anywhere is much more apt tosucceed than one who is unhappy and uncomfortableunless he can have things exactly as he wants them. The secret of the English Sparrows success ishis generalized habits. He seems equally at homein the city or country, on cobble streets, or in thebarnyard; he eats almost anything and appears torelish it, and any place that will hold his nestingmaterial suits him for a home. In attempting to classify birds by their haunts wehave no difficulty with the specialized species, but itis not so easy to place the generalized species wherethey belong. Of the birds which we Include in thissection, the Crow, Goldfinch, Siskin, Redpoll andBob-white may be found at times in the woods aswell as in the fields, but since we will doubtless seethem more frequently in the open, we may class themas Field Birds. THE CROW A BIRD WITH FEW FRIENDS {Fig. 19). Y his enemies the Crows characteris painted as black as his plumage,but before we condemn him Ishould like to hear the verdict of ajury of Crows. We, for example,would not like to have the buf-falo or Wild Pigeon or Carolina Paroquet, or any-other animal that man has exterminated, paint ourcharacter. Even the house fly and mosquito couldprove that we were heartless murderers! So we see that Crows must be judged by the stand-ards of Crows, just as men are measured by thestandards of men. From this point of view I find much to admirein the Crow. It is true that he takes our corn androbs birds nests of their eggs and young. But if awild Crow should show as much confidence in meas Chickadee does, I should welcome his friendship and consider myself honored among my kind. 97 98 OUR WINTER BIRDS Unfortunately for the Crow this Is not the atti-tude of the world toward him. By both man andbird he Is treated as an outlaw. The former deni
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