104 METHODS OF ATTRACTING BIRDS 



Suet on Branches. A simple and somewhat 

 effective device for keeping the sparrows away 

 from suet is to fasten it on the under side of a 

 limb, so large that the sparrows cannot stand on 

 the upper side and reach it. If the limb does 

 not slope more than forty-five degrees from the 

 vertical, the tree-climbing birds will have little 

 trouble in getting at it, while the sparrows will 

 be quite nonplussed. 



Moving Counter. For other kinds of birds, 

 some kind of moving counter seems to offer the 

 best protection. Three winters ago the author's 

 yard was so monopolized with a flock of English 

 sparrows, that practically no other birds came to 

 the food kept out. About the middle of the winter 

 a lunch-counter was attached to a wire and sus- 

 pended from a tree. The result was immediate 

 and gratifying. The sparrows left at once and 

 were hardly seen around again during the winter, 

 while several of our native birds came freely to 

 it. The author rejoiced, thinking that at last he 

 had solved the sparrow problem ; but the experi- 

 ences of the following winter showed that no such 

 simple device would long outwit such a crafty 

 pest as the sparrow. By this time the sparrows 

 had become accustomed to it and came quite 

 freely to it. On another side of the house a 



