* * * * THE PRECIOUS WALNUT.
I have made a good many inquiries of late about the foods preferred by many birds. One correspondent bears witness to the absolute supremacy of pie-crust or shortcake. A very different sort of food is preferred for her birds by Mrs. Winder in a modest and most charming little article in the Fortnightly Review for January. She is one of the select few who has succeeded in persuading a number of birds--including tits, of various sorts, chaffinches, and, of course, robins—to feed readily from the hand. Her view is that by far the favourite food, even among birds not generally supposed to be nut-enters, is the walnut. A good many beaks hardly strong enough for the nut even if it is out of the shell, can deal with a good moist walnut, just as many birds not supposed to be fruit eaters will attack half-rotten apples. It may be added that a mill for grinding nuts is a machine not used nearly enough for the compounding of human as well as birds' food.
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