382 Bird - Lore 



spot. When one bird has found the suet at the window, it will not be necessary 

 to keep up the supply in the other places, for birds are continually watching 

 each other as well as hunting for food and are quick to follow the one that has 

 found a good feeding place. In the beginning it will be most satisfactory 

 to tie the suet to the most conspicuous branches available, but at a 

 permanent feeding station, likely to be visited by Crows and squirrels that 

 will try to carry off all the suet in one piece, it is best to put it behind a piece 

 of wire netting or to ram it into a hole bored in a tree or a post erected for that 

 purpose. 



If there are weed patches or shrubbery near, where the seed-eating birds 

 regularly feed, one should encourage them to return to that place by scattering 

 more seed, but if there are none, as is often the case, one can rely upon the 

 Chickadees and Nuthatches and House Sparrows to show them the way, 

 and can begin by putting seed directly on his feeding-shelf. There is scarcely 

 any locality where flocks of House Sparrows will not almost immediately find 

 the seed and consume it about as fast as put out. One should not be dis- 

 couraged, however, for they ordinarily act as decoys and by their chirping 

 announce to the passing native birds the presence of the food. After the 

 native birds have found the food, it is time to outwit the Sparrows with 

 anti-Sparrow devices. 



THE PERMANENT FEEDING STATION 



The type of permanent feeding station to be used must be determined by 

 local conditions. If there is a window available, with a tree somewhere near it, 

 by all means use some sort of a feeding-shelf or -box at the window. The 

 advantages of having the birds at such close range more than outweigh the 

 occasional distractions that may occur in the schoolroom at unsuitable moments. 

 Many teachers tell me that discipline becomes much easier after the birds 

 have been attracted to the window, because the children are more willing to 

 give strict attention to their studies when they are told that they will be allowed 

 to watch the birds for a few minutes upon completing their lesson. 



By no means purchase or have built a more elaborate feeding table than 

 the children themselves can make. They should be made to feel that the com- 

 ing of the birds is a direct result of their own efforts, and though the feeding 

 station of the younger children may be somewhat crude, it is far better to have 

 it so than that the children should feel that someone's help was necessary 

 to bring the birds, or that their coming was not a direct response to their own 

 efforts. With the youngest children one need but nail a cleat along the outside 

 of the window-ledge to keep the food from blowing off, and fasten a branch 

 to the window casing to which suet can be tied. It is better to use some sort 

 of a shelf, however, that will give a little more room for the birds, so that more 

 than one can feed at a time. Our native birds like lots of 'elbow room' while 

 feeding. 



