Lumber should be used that will withstand the weather. Cypress, spruce and soft pine are perhaps the best.
Winter Care of the Birds.
If you wish to attract birds about the house during the winter, do not wait until the ground is covered with snow, but begin in the Fall to scatter hayseed from the barn or stable floor, on the bare ground about the yard.
Millet or any bird seed will do as well. Hang some pieces of suet or beef-trimmings on the branches of the trees beyond the reach of cats and dogs. If at first these pieces are widely scattered at points radiating from the house as a center, your success should be assured. Your lures will keep best at this season if tied on the shade side of a tree trunk; but later in the winter they should be put on the sunny side. They should be well wound to limbs with twine, or covered with wire netting, so that neither jays or crows can carry them off bodily.
They are now ready to attract and hold birds that might otherwise pass on to the south. The birds may not find the food at once, but usually they will find it sooner or later. When the chickadees have discovered it we are ready for the next move.
Fresh meat or suet is now put up on the trees nearest the house, to accustom the birds to coming there.
Many types of feeders can be made, varying the plain wood shelf, to the artistic food shelters of natural limbs and bark. Some feeders can be placed on movable pivots on poles with extended vanes in front so that the wind will always cause them to be in a sheltered position. This type of feeding shelf, Fig. [4], and others are shown on Plate [20].
Birdhouses Made at Rochester, N. Y.
The window shelf shown on Plate [20], Fig. [1], is convenient and can be easily watched and tended. Fig. [2] shows a feeding stick. Melted suet is poured into the holes and allowed to cool and the birds eat from the outside.