ACCESSORIES 
89 
below, but such protection is easily given by 
a canopy similar to the underneath shield. 
Both may be dressed with vines if the ground 
is kept open below and no communication be- 
tween it and the basin established:. Unless 
these conditions can all be complied with, how- 
ever, eliminate this feature altogether. It will 
be a veritable death trap until the birds learn 
their peril and abandon it — and then its rea- 
son for being at all is of course gone. 
Many kinds of receptacles are offered or 
may be secured for the basin itself; and inge- 
nuity and imagination will undoubtedly sug- 
gest others that no one has ever heard of. Any- 
thing from a soup-plate to a marble font will 
serve — both of these have, I believe, although 
neither would be my choice. A shallow water 
space rather than a deep one should be pro- 
vided; and one portion should be shallower 
than the rest, for the tiny fellows and the 
young birds. Stones that are flat and may be 
laid at an incline to form a gradual descent du- 
plicate the conditions of a brookside and please 
the birds; for often they come for a drink and 
a wade when they cannot stop for a dip. 
A wooden chopping bowl, painted stony 
gray inside and out, and sprinkled with sand 
while still wet, was the inexpensive yet very 
