Making Friends with Wild Birds. 101 



the snow is swept away, or on the window- sills when 

 the bold applicants come at our breakfast-time to 

 mention that they have none, are certainly very good 

 beginnings of an entente cordiale. 



Visiting nests is also useful. I made it so much 

 a thing of course that I am not aware of any great 

 precautions that need be taken : of course, one moves 

 gently, and does not speak, except to the bird. In 

 feeding the young it is better to begin on the third 

 or fourth day, before they can see, as then they are 

 used to one's voice, and to the way of feeding. 



Stale bread, crumbled and scalded, the water 

 poured off and a little cold milk poured on and beaten 

 up, is, I think, the food that answers most gene- 

 rally, serving for both hard and soft-billed birds. 

 A little finely pounded yolk of egg is an improve- 

 ment, if the birds do not seem to like it without. 

 This preparation should be made fresh each time, 

 and the milk must not be sour, nor the egg kept 

 more than a few hours. A quill, the end cut round, 

 and a little notch, two or three inches higher, for 

 admitting air, is the best thing for feeding with, 

 a very small piece being dropped into each of the 

 widely gaping beaks. The food should be given 

 neither quite cold nor at all hot. 



2. Birds so trained to know one grow up pretty 

 tame. I used to take them in and out of the nests ; 

 and very often a young bird gets hurt, or a Swallow 



