How to Invite Bird Neighbours 



esting winter neighbours : chickadees, nuthatches, 

 tufted titmice, brown creepers, woodpeckers and 

 blue jays. Minced raw meat, waste canary, hemp 

 and sunflower seed, buckwheat, cracked oats and 

 corn, crumbs and the sweepings from the hay loft, 

 scattered over the ground, make a delectable hash 

 for feathered boarders with varied appetites. Food 

 that can be put in dishes on piazza roofs or on 

 shelves in trees either winter or summer for such 

 soft-billed birds as robins, catbirds, mocking birds, 

 thrushes and orioles the most delightful and tuneful 

 of bird neighbours is made of equal parts of corn- 

 meal, pea-meal and German moss into which 

 enough molasses and 

 melted suet or lard have 

 been stirred to make a 

 thick batter. If this 

 mixture is fried for half 

 an hour, it can be 

 packed away in jars and 

 will keep for weeks. 

 Grated carrot or minced 

 apple is a welcome 

 addition. 



Last autumn, when a 

 New York family was 

 seated around the break- 

 fast table, a young 

 woodthrush flew into 

 the dining-room through 

 the open window. It was a straggler from a flock 

 on its way South. Weary, hungry and faint with 

 travel, it alighted on the frame of a picture which, 



13 



Photograph t>y Brownell 



Berries of the Virginia creeper 



