FEEDING BIRDS 297 



played the scientific doctor in this matter. He makes a 

 pudding or porridge or olla podrida, which is a compound of 

 the sorts of food that birds most enjoy and most flourish on. 

 The following is his ideal recipe : — 



This elaborate mixture is incorporated into a mass of fat 

 or suet equal to nearly twice as much as the whole of the 

 previous mixture. The pudding is heated and poured over 

 the branches and trunk, over which it forms a film ; and to 

 these rich and succulent boughs the birds will flock, pecking 

 at the plums in the collection from every conceivable attitude 

 — robins on tip-toe, tits upside down, thrushes blundering 

 about, and warblers alighting daintily. Of course the food 

 need not be so elaborate as the baron's, but if it contains 

 some meat and some seeds, so much the better. It is a good 

 plan to collect the seeds of elder or sunflower at the 

 right season, and keep them for the birds against the hungry 

 hours of the year. The really important thing is to pour the 

 mixture on the trees when it is boiling hot, so that quite a 

 fine coating is spread as widely as possible. 



Another idea is a 'food stick.' A succession of holes 

 are cut or scooped out of a narrow bough which is then 

 nailed across a trunk. It provides a very handy and 

 picturesque way of feeding tits and tree-creepers, and the 



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