So the obligation to feed the birds is stronger on
as to-day than it was at Christmas time. I am convinced that a neglect of this truth does a great deal of damage to many estates where game are preserved. Pheasants and partridges both, and duck yet more, suffer more in spring than at any other time of the year. They certainly have at least as bad a time as the thrushes and tits in the garden. When we set out to feed our garden birds we often find the work rather more difficult than we thought it. The sparrows get more than their share, or the dogs and cats intrude, or some birds that need most get least. There are one or two rules to be observed. The crumbs for the grain-feeding birds must be on a table. If it is climbable by mice these engaging mammals can he attracted with the birds. For the meat-eating birds nothing is more popular than a very large bone, say, several ribs of beef. The robins and thrushes and starlings can cling to it, as well as the tits, and all prefer it before the cocoanut. Where cocoanuts are used, it is as well to fix some firmly as well as suspend them. They thus serve several more species and the conta-its disappear much more quickly.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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