Our Avian Creditors 



227 



even after it has grown beautifully smaller under the attacks of hungry birds. 

 If there is danger of Crows, Jays or red squirrels carrying off more than 

 their share, it is found to be a good plan to flatten out a lump of suet 

 against a tree trunk, and then tack down over it a square foot of half-inch 

 wire netting. This enables any bird to get a meal on the spot, but prevents 

 the selfish fellows from cart- 

 ing off the entire banquet at 

 once. 



As a rule, the best places 

 to distribute the grain, seed 

 etc., are in the middle of 

 wide, open fields and pas- 

 tures, which can be seen for 

 a considerable distance by 

 birds flying over. On reach- 

 ing such a spot, the mem- 

 bers of a squad fall to with 

 their shovels and clear a 

 space from ten to twenty 

 feet square, right down to 

 the bare ground. If the food 

 were thrown upon the snow, 

 it would be liable to sink in 

 at the first thaw, and then 

 it would be quite out of the 

 reach of most of the hungry 

 ones. After scattering a 

 quantity of grain, the squad 

 moves on perhaps half a 

 mile, and repeats the opera- 

 tion, establishing as many 

 feeding stations in its own 

 section as possible during the 

 time at its disposal. 



Of course it is somewhat 

 disappointing to find that all 

 the seed scattered during the afternoon is covered up by snow the next 

 morning, as sometimes happens; but boys with the right stuff in them will 

 not be discouraged, but will stand up to their work until it is finished. 

 The High School boys of Stoneham, Mass., were among the first to show 

 that no amount of snow could discourage bird-feeders who had the proper 

 spirit, and, in the unusually severe winter of 1903 -1904, they got out with 

 their snow -shovels and grain and suet after every storm, and established and 



J^INC SUET IN THE TREES 

 Photographed by the author 



