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that, as a rule, they visit a certain district by the same route and at 

 fairly regular hours, and on their way visit the feeding-places just as 

 they visit trees, as long as they can find their natural food there. 



It is only when the weather prevents access to their natural 

 storerooms that they stop all day near the feeding-places, and it is then 

 that artificial feeding must come to their rescue. 



It is a different matter in the case of those birds which inhabit a 

 small area, such as a garden. They may be called tame to a certain 

 extent, and have given up wandering over large districts, but it by no 

 means follows that they eat nothing but artificial food, and have given 

 up their work in Nature's household. 



Kind-hearted people have always taken pity on our feathered winter 

 guests. Feeding-places of the most varied description have been 

 and still are arranged for birds, and all manner of feeding appliances, 

 often very cleverly contrived, were and are still used. 



But often, when neither money nor trouble have been spared, the 

 results have been out of proportion to the means employed. I know 

 cases where food was used by the hundredweight, and was simply 

 scattered in the street or on feeding-places in mud and snow, where, of 

 course, the greater part was wasted, as far as its original purpose was 

 concerned. But people feel satisfied and proudly conscious of having 

 done a " good deed " simply because, they have spent a considerable sum 

 of money ; they do not pay any attention to the fact that they have in 

 no way relieved the birds. 



Again it was Baron von Berlepsch who introduced a satisfactory 

 solution of the difficult question of winter feeding. After experimenting 

 for eleven years, he drew up three conditions necessary for the 

 effective and sensible feeding of birds in winter, which, according to 

 him, has for its main object their preservation. " The sensible and 

 effective method of feeding birds must (1) be readily accepted by those 

 for whom it is intended ; (2) be carried out in all weathers that is 

 to say, the food must always be accessible to all birds, especially 

 in sudden changes of weather, blizzards, wind, rain and frost, and must 

 always be in the best condition ; (3) it must be comparatively cheap 

 i.e., the money spent on the food must really serve its purpose. The 

 food must not be wasted or spoilt, but must be used by the birds to 

 the last crumb."* 



* " Ornithologische Monatsschrift," 1904, p. 374. 



