254 BIRD FRIENDS 



Window shelf. The shelf may be placed at a win- 

 dow, and many birds will become so tame that they 

 will feed here, even when a person is sitting by the 

 window inside. This shelf should be w^ide, so as to 

 allow room for a number of birds to dine at once. 

 If covered with burlap, the small seeds and crumbs 

 will blow away less easily. It would doubtless be 

 worth while to arrange some kind of awning or roof 

 over this to keep off the snow, so that the birds 

 might be able to find food during the storms. 



Suet-box. Suet may be tied to branches of trees, 

 or a suet-box, adapted for hanging on a tree, can be 

 easily made. A piece of half -inch board about five 

 by six inches forms the back. Around this on the 

 two sides and across the bottom are nailed strips 

 of narrow half-inch boards, about two inches 

 wide. Across these strips is fastened a piece of 

 poultry-wire netting with one-inch mesh or a piece 

 of hardware cloth. The top of the box is left open 

 for inserting the suet. A screw-eye is screwed into 

 the top of the back so that the box may be sus- 

 pended from a nail driven into a tree. This pre- 

 vents the birds from carrying off large pieces of suet 

 and wasting it, but enables them to feed through 

 the meshes. Suet-baskets may be bought of several 

 of the dealers listed in Chapter XIX. 



Christmas tree. After the Christmas season is 

 over, instead of throwing away the tree, it may be 

 loaded with food for the birds. Suet and berries may 



