INTRODUCTION 17 



in winter is measured not only by our success in giv- 

 ing them shelter and food during the bleak and bar- 

 ren season, but also by the extent to which we gain 

 their confidence and win their companionship. We 

 want not only to bring the birds to our gardens but 

 to our threshold, and for this reason the most satis- 

 factory feeding device is a window lunch counter. 



An ideal window has a southern exposure with 

 nearby trees and bushes without, and a dining room 

 within where, as we sit down at our meals, we may 

 see the birds at theirs. 



The table itself should be worthy of the guests 

 we hope will honor it; not a soap-box or bare wooden 

 slab, but a rustic tray with a railing by way of a 

 perch, and at one end a small evergreen to which 

 the birds may retire between courses. 



We cannot hope to receive immediate acceptances 

 when we invite the birds to dine with us. Window- 

 sills are not places in which they have been accus- 

 tomed to look for food, and the habit of visiting 

 them is not to be acquired at once. To hasten mat- 

 ters one bird host ^ hung his table on a wire trolley 

 some distance from the house, where the birds could 

 easily see it. Soon after they found it, he drew it 

 gradually toward his window and the birds followed 

 it to its new position. 



*See Gilbert H. Trafton, "Bird Friends" (Houghton, Mifflin 

 Company). 



