298 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



food can be well protected against the weather if the holes 

 are faced to one side. As might be expected, a quantity 

 of more elaborate methods are practised in the German 

 sanctuary. There are food bills and food hutches and 

 houses of many sorts designed to protect the food from the 

 weather and to attract the birds. Some of them would be 

 a great addition to the London parks, but they would not 

 be of less use in gardens. 



These methods have been elaborated for some years, 

 but the economic value has only recently become apparent, 

 and induced the German Government to take this model 

 sanctuary under its wing, following an example set by 

 Hungary, where the Government assists the study of migra- 

 tion with as good results as have followed its teaching of 

 economic ornithology. 



Every one finds it easy enough to attract the common 

 birds and some of the bolder. The cole-tit and march-tit 

 may in some neighbourhoods be regarded as more or less 

 uncommon or at least hard to find ; but they will at once 

 come to the suspended fat on the Christmas tree. Other 

 birds are not so bold as the tits; and to draw them more 

 care must be taken and their habits more closely observed. 

 The nuthatch is one. He seems to have as shrewd a sense 

 for a nut as a vulture for a carcase. You may offer any sort 

 of food ; and never discover that nuthatches exist ; but if 

 a frame be fixed with wire or wood in front to hold the nuts 

 without hiding them it is odds that the nuthatches arrive- 

 within a week. The better plan with all the shyer birds is 

 at first to put the food in the places where they are most 

 likely to be rather than where you wish them to be. When 

 once they have found food within your precincts the rest is 

 easy. They may be tempted nearer and nearer ; or out of 

 the obscure into the open with some ease. 



