62 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



on and to eat at the same time. (To see a 

 sparrow with his less-practised feet clinging 

 to the edge of the tin, back downwards, just 

 like a tit and helping himself to its contents 

 is a good example of the energetic enterprise 

 and the adaptability of his nature.) Robins 

 do sometimes hold on to the tin in the same 

 way, but generally they get quite as much 

 as they want by flying up and pecking at the 

 fat. They seem able to aim very accurately, 

 and when the tin is nearly empty can make 

 sure of the smallest fragments. Sparrows 

 also attack the food in the same way by flying 

 up at it, but they seem to find it more 

 awkward, owing, perhaps, to the small space 

 between the sides of the tin and the wood in 

 the middle, which barely gives room for their 

 larger heads and clumsier beaks. 



Another successful plan was to suspend 

 the fat within a roll of inch-mesh wire net- 

 ting. To begin with I put this on the food- 

 stand, at some little distance from my win- 

 dow, and though at first only tits and robins 

 would venture down within the roll of wire, 

 after a time the sparrows followed suit, and, 

 of course, there was nothing to prevent them 

 getting as much as they liked but their own 

 caution. I might have stopped them by 

 covering the top with netting, but then the 

 great-tits and robins would have been ex- 

 cluded as well as the sparrows, and even 

 tomtits could only get through the meshes 



