138 THE BIRDS' FREE BREAKFAST TABLE 



often refilled in case of frost. The birds very 

 soon learn to recognise any signal such as a bell, 

 whistle or the clattering of a spoon on the food- 

 dish, and will be seen hastening in flocks from 

 quite a distance as soon as the first sound is 

 heard 



In a suitable locality it will probably be a 

 surprise to the novice to find what a number of 

 different birds will be attracted. In the case of 

 the writer, in a West Highland parish, no less 

 than twenty-one different species have at one 

 time or other come to be fed in the immediate 

 vicinity of the house ; some of these, as, for 

 instance, the brambling and the redwing, are 

 only to be looked for in the stress of a hard 

 winter. Now and then some rarity will put in 

 an appearance, as when a marsh tit stayed for 

 several days, and was doubly interesting in 

 that it constituted a first record of the species 

 for the county. All through the winter, how- 

 ever, some eight to ten different species may 

 be seen daily, and often in considerable numbers ; 

 as many as sixty chaffinches have been counted 

 at one time within a space of a few yards square. 

 In a more highly cultivated district, the number 

 of varieties would doubtless be greater. 



To encourage birds to remain with us, the 

 principal thing one can do, besides affording 



