Planting Trees, Shrubs, and Vines

Plants for Foods. - In selecting our plants the question of food should receive first consideration. Some of our birds feed quite largely on fruits in their season, and a large number of them select fruits as a small part, at least, of their diet. The essential features regarding the fruit diet of birds are condensed into the accompanying table. This shows the kind of fruit eaten and the birds which feed upon the various kinds.

The table has been compiled largely from the studies on the food of birds made by the Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture, but any other reliable records to which the author has had access have also been used, as Weed and Dearborn's "Birds in Their Relation to Man," and Dr. Hodge's "Food Chart of Our Common Birds." Messrs. E. H. Forbush and F. E. L. Beal have both contributed to the chart. A letter F placed in a column signifies that this food is eaten by the bird in question. A double FF indicates that the fruit forms an important article of food. As far as data have been available, the total percentage of the entire food which the wild and cultivated fruits form has been given.

In the table the birds and fruits are arranged alphabetically. Following that, is a list of fruits arranged according to the number of species of birds which eat them, and then a list of birds according to the numbers of species of fruit upon which they are known to feed.