ATTRACTING THE WINTER BIRDS 85 



Best Foods. — A study of these various ob- 

 servations indicates that the following are the best 

 foods to use : suet, nuts, sunflower-seeds, cracked 

 corn, doughnut-crumbs, bread-crumbs, hemp, dog- 

 biscuit, squash-seeds, hay-seed, Japanese millet, 

 bayberry. The fat trimmings from beefsteak may 

 be eaten if hung up in trees. Bones as they are 

 trimmed out, with a few shreds of meat and fat 

 attached, may serve as a substitute for suet, espe- 

 cially if they are cut or broken open so as to expose 

 the marrow. 



Other foods which have been reported as being 

 eaten are : raw pork-rinds, meat-scraps, which had 

 better be run through a meat-chopper, chafE from 

 barn-floor or hay-loft, oats, bird-seed, buckwheat, 

 boiled potatoes, and rice. 



A piece of carrion hung up in the orchard or 

 edge of the woods may serve as food for the crows 

 and jays. The jays are also fond of chestnuts and 

 corn. When the ground is deeply covered with 

 snow, the grain-eating birds may have difficulty 

 in securing grit which is needed in the gizzard for 

 grinding the food. To supply this need, coal-ashes 

 or sand may be put out. 



Time to begin. — It is important that the 

 food should be put out early, even by the latter 

 part of October, before the supply of natural food 



