134 HIS RELATIONS WITH US 
No food should be offered in summer, be- 
cause we want them to get their natural food of 
worms and seeds. 
In the winter it is different. They should 
have food regularly. But once used to having 
their wants supplied, they will depend upon it, 
and suffer and probably starve, if they are neg- 
lected or forgotten. So one should be very 
sure he will not get tired of it, before he teaches 
them to expect food. 
To feed them safely, a shelf must be placed 
out of the reach of cats and bad boys. On the 
sill of a window is a good place, or the roof of 
a piazza, or a little balcony. Breakfast should 
be served to them at the same hour every day, 
and they will soon know when to come for it. 
For food, they will eat any table scraps of 
meat, and vegetables, and bread, chopped fine, 
and most kinds of grain, broken up, or crushed, 
for the smaller birds. 
But the thing they all like best of everything 
is raw suet, as it comes from the butcher. A 
large piece may be wired or nailed in place, so 
that it may be picked at and not displaced, or it 
may be chopped fine and scattered on the shelf, 
like other food. All birds are fond of this. 
In winter they need water, and it should then, 
also, be fresh. 
