1 8 OUR WINTER BIRDS 



A Butcher window box ^ will bring the birds even 

 nearer to us. This is a three-sided glass box which 

 is made to fit the window-opening closely and on 

 which the sash closes as tightly as it did on the sill. 

 It projects about a foot into the room, while the 

 wooden floor, or food tray, extends also outward the 

 same distance beyond the sill. Food is inserted 

 through a lid in the top. 



Meals may be served in the garden on feeding 

 stands, or in the trees, but again let us not forget that 

 the cat will come without any invitation. A rustic 

 feeding stand will prove more serviceable and more 

 sightly than many of the devices now in use. An 

 evergreen bough, thatched or rustic roof may be 

 added for purposes of protection and concealment. 



The accompanying diagram shows such a stand 

 as I have in mind. In place of the broad tray, which 

 offers birds no foothold, and does not clearly indi- 

 cate each guest's place at the table, as it were, I pre- 

 fer a hollowed limb or a bark-covered trough in 

 which the food may be placed. This provides a 

 natural perch on which the birds look, and doubt- 

 less feel, far more at home than on a flat floor. Two 

 of these limbs placed on the same upright more than 

 double the feeding capacity of this "branch estab- 

 lishment" since it permits uncongenial guests to take 



*See E. H. Baynes, "Wild Bird Guests" (E. P. Dutton & Co.). 



