73 



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. 



Drinking places for birds are being instituted, and are warmly 

 recommended for summer and winter. They may, however, be 

 looked on as unnecessary in winter. Experience shows that birds 

 can quench their thirst with snow and pieces of ice, but well-arranged 

 drinking places are most important in summer in districts with little 

 water, where there is not much rain. 



But often, when neither money nor trouble has 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 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. 



