142 Wild Bird Guests 



up, one in each hand. When sometimes I lay 

 on the ground among them, they would poke 

 their heads into my sleeves and if my ulster was 

 not tightly buttoned, some of them would creep 

 inside. While they were in the garden they 

 kept up an incessant musical twittering, which 

 added greatly to the pleasure they gave us. 



But to return to our work. There are certain 

 appliances such as food houses, window boxes, 

 food trolleys, etc., which it is very pleasant to 

 have and which may be made at home or by local 

 carpenters, or which may be bought ready-made. 

 But if we cannot afford either the time to make 

 them or the money to buy these things, we 

 can get along pretty well without them. Let us 

 get out our food early. The birds may not eat 

 much of it at first, but they will have a chance 

 to find out where it is, and be able to go directly 

 to it when they really need it. We might begin 

 by putting out some suet. I believe in having 

 rather large pieces, weighing say about a pound 

 apiece, at a few principal points and a num- 

 ber of smaller pieces scattered more widely, in 

 order to attract the attention of as many birds 

 as possible and guide them to the larger lumps. 

 If our final object is to attract the birds to points 

 near the house, let us first select the side of the 

 house to which we wish to bring them. If we 



