134 



Wild Birds. 



rolling note, the import of which I soon guessed. . . . Several days in succession I 

 went to the spot, and saw with pleasure that as my visits increased in frequency, the 

 birds became more familiarized to me, and, before a week had elapsed, the Pewees and 

 myself were quite on terms of intimacy. It was now the tenth of April. . . . The 

 Pewees, I observed, began working at their old nest. My presence no longer alarmed 

 either of them." He was soon able to put his hand close to the sitting bird without dis- 

 turbing it. 



While possessed by the incubation spirit many birds, as is well known, are indifferent 



to danger and will hug their eggs at any cost. 

 In this respect few can excel the " tame 

 villagic fowl," who displays greater stupidity 

 than most wild birds, who rarely sit on an 

 empty nest, 1 and have been known to reject 

 strange eggs. In this state birds cannot be 

 considered tame although the sense of fear 

 may be temporarily dulled, and one of the 

 conditions of the taming process fulfilled. 

 The hen will peck vigorously at the in- 

 truder, and if hustled tiff the nest will soon 

 return. Some birds like Song Sparrows 

 and Brown Thrushes will remain immov- 

 able as if hiding until you come dangerously 

 near, when they glide off silently, but usually 

 remain quiet for a moment only. The 

 Robin flies off in a passion. The Tropic 

 Bird fights but sticks to her egg. The 

 Woodpeckers are close sitters and may 

 sometimes be taken in the hand. A Chick- 

 adee which I worried with a straw would 

 peck angrily at it, but remained on the nest. 

 The Cedar-birds retire in silence. In this 



Fig. 129. Female Chestnut-sided Warbler approaching state birds become passive merely through 

 nest and looking in. At this time there were eggs, or the . 



young had barely pipped the sheii. the temporary suppression of the sense of 



fear. 



Fish Hawks used to nest on Plum Island, New York, where according to Mr. C. S. 

 Allen, 2 they had been zealously protected by the owner of the island for upwards of 

 thirty years previous to 1885. The first nest shown to him by Mr. Jerome, the faithful 

 guardian of the birds, was " fairly in his door-yard, close by his front gate, and only 

 about fifty yards from his home. It was placed upon an old pile of fence rails, rotted to 

 black mould in the center, but kept up by the yearly addition of fresh rails. Mr. Jerome 

 said that to his knowledge this nest had been occupied every year for forty years." It 

 had been added to yearly until its huge bulk of sticks and miscellaneous materials would 



1 Fur an account of a pair of Bald Eagles nesting on the ground in the New York Zoological Park and incubat- 

 ing a goud-si/ed stone which was placed in the improvised nest, see Hir,i Lore, vol. iii.. p. 34. 1901. 

 ; The Auk. vol. ix., p. 313, iS(j2 



