TAME BIRDS. 
29 
times in the da}^ besides. With the window open I could watch 
them, standing quite close to the window. At first any one 
trying to do this must keep very still and their arms down. All 
wild animals, I believe, have great fear of the human arms if 
they are moving. 
I do not think many people have any idea how beautiful many 
of our little birds are ; the blue-tits and cole-tits are the sweetest 
little birds, and towards nesting time the cock birds look so 
spick and span and perky, having donned their best clothes to 
please their mates. The nuthatch will take the nut out of its 
shell if it is slightly broken. Often, on a cold winter’s day, 
when entering my room, and the food was all gone, the birds 
have come immediately, and tapped the window with their 
beaks, and have continued tapping till I threw out their food 
and supplied their wants. At Nazing Park the sparrows were 
not numerous, and were always kept in order by the other birds, 
the robins, chaffinches, &c., never allowing them to feed with 
them. 
When first we went to our new Hertfordshire home the 
birds were rather wild, and there were not many of them ; but 
now we have many more, and they are much tamer. The first 
winter we were here I began to strew bread-crumbs in the 
garden and also to try window-sill feeding ; but the great diffi- 
culty was, how to get the birds to my bedroom window-sill. 
The sill is so narrow and so difficult for a bird, not only to see 
the food placed on the sill, but also to fly and perch upon it. 
I hung up my suet and spread my delicacies, but all in vain ; 
days passed, but no birds came. I was in despair, but I did not 
mean to be beaten, so I got a long piece of string, fastened one 
end on the nail upon v,fhich the suet hung, and on every few 
inches I tied on a piece of meat, or bread, and dropped it to the 
ground. After a few days, to my great delight the birds found 
it, and little by little came up to my window sill, and now the 
birds come in numbers, and of all kinds ; but here the sparrows 
are numerous and try to drive off the other birds. 
If it is very cold weather, and the ponds are icebound, a 
saucer of water placed for the birds is a great boon, as they 
suffer much from thirst in cold weather. I am sure any invalid 
confined to the house would derive much pleasure from feeding 
birds from a window-sill. The thrushes and blackbirds seem to 
like to feed on the window sills of the sitting rooms best, but if 
much driven for food they will come up higher. The only 
objection to the lower window-sills is, that the cats may be 
watching for the birds, but on the higher sills they are quite 
safe from these, their natural enemies. 
M. A. H. 
