60 METHODS OF ATTRACTING BIRDS 



for themselves, but it must be placed in their 

 mouths, and they should be fed about once an 

 hour during the hours of daylight. It may take 

 several days for them to learn to feed themselves. 

 For a further discussion of this subject of 

 taming and feeding birds the reader is referred 

 to Hodge's " Nature Study and Life," Chapter 

 xxi, from which many of the above suggestions 

 are taken. 



Difficulties 



In attempting to induce birds to nest in houses, 

 there are two difficulties met with everywhere, the 

 cat and the English sparrow. The latter is much 

 the more troublesome ; the cat can be outwitted 

 quite readily, but not so the sparrow, which pos- 

 sesses a persistence difficult to overcome. The cat 

 brings trouble only after the houses have been 

 occupied and the young hatched; the sparrow 

 brings trouble weeks before the other birds are 

 due to begin nesting, by preempting all claims to 

 any available nesting-sites ; and when other birds 

 do return, the sparrows prevent them from at- 

 tempting to nest in most cases, and keep up a 

 constant quarreling with those birds that may 

 begin nesting. In many cases they go even fur- 

 ther and destroy the eggs and nestlings and 

 adults of the native birds which may have suc- 

 ceeded in establishing themselves in a nesting-site. 



