6 Wild Bird Guests 



breakfast table close to an open window and 

 sprinkled broken nuts upon the cloth. In came 

 the chickadees, picked up the nuts, and flew 

 out into the garden with them. To teach them 

 better manners we swept up the small pieces of 

 nut and stitched each large piece to the table- 

 cloth; after that the chickadees stayed right 

 on the table and took breakfast with us. 



One day, when we were living at Stoneham, 

 Massachusetts, I saw a flock of these little birds 

 in a tree, and I thought I would see how tame 

 I could make them. I held out a handful 

 of broken nuts and gave an imitation of the 

 "phoebe" note of the chickadee. One little 

 fellow flew down to my hand, picked up a piece 

 of nut, and flew away. I called to Mrs. Baynes 

 to bring a camera, and when I saw another bird 

 coming, instead of holding the loose nuts in the 

 palm of my hand as before, I held a single piece 

 tight between my thumb and forefinger. Down 

 came the chickadee, and finding that he could 

 not fly away with the nut, he sat there for several 

 minutes and ate it. That seemed pretty good for 

 a first attempt, but I thought I would test him 

 further. I placed a piece of nut between my 

 lips and held up my forefinger as a perch for him. 

 He needed no second invitation, but alighted on 

 the finger and helped himself. It didn't seem 



