ARTIFICIAL FEEDING 259 



a dozen in length, with a shallow rim around the edge to 

 keep the food from blowing or washing off, and built upon 

 posts about three feet high. Once a week the attendant 

 puts out six or seven quarts of the mixture described above, 

 in which time it is nearly all eaten. Robins use it very freely, 

 also blue-jays and various species of the sparrows and finch 

 tribe. Among others is the rose-breasted grosbeak, which 

 many people are trying hard to attract. The grosbeak here 

 devours the hemp seed with particular reHsh — a word to 

 the wise. The large use to which this tray is put shows that 

 summer feeding can be made of considerable account. It is 

 pleasing to the owner of the premises to have so many more 

 species brought under easy observation. The seed diet, of 

 course, does not interest the strictly insectivorous birds like 

 warblers or flycatchers, but orioles occasionally come. By 

 the use of ants' eggs and such preparations as "mockingbird 

 food" it might be possible to draw birds of this other type. 

 Of course, though, we wish them to devote their energies 

 largely to the insect pests on the premises. 



Winter Feeding Methods. The various methods and 

 devices for feeding birds in winter which have proved suc- 

 cessful will now be described. 



Suet Devices. Suet should be put up where the birds 

 using it will be secure from cats as they eat. It can be 

 fastened to a trunk or branch of a tree, and there is no need 

 of any special perch, as the birds which use it are good 

 hangers-on, whereas EngHsh sparrows will come more if 

 there is a convenient perch. If merely nailed up it is 

 liable to split off, so a better way is to tie it on, winding it 

 around with twine. Still another method is to tack over it 

 wire netting of rather small mesh, perhaps ^-inch size. 

 Through this the birds can reach in to eat, but cannot take 

 off large pieces and waste it. Ready-made wire-mesh suet- 



