How the Central Park Chickadees Were Tamed 



BY A. A. CROLIUS* 



.N the] early part of the winter of i8g8-g Chickadees were 

 unusually abundant in Central Park, New York City, and 

 a friend and myself saw them come down and get some 

 of the nuts we were feeding to White-throated Sparrows. 

 We were, of course, much interested, and determined to 

 see if we could tame them. They would take the nuts 

 to a limb, eat all they wished, and hide the rest in crev- 

 ices in trees or bushes, where, I think, they seldom found them again, 

 for the impudent and ever wide-awake English Sparrow watched 

 and got the pieces almost as soon as they were deposited. After 

 feeding them in this way for some time, we tried to get them to eat 

 from our hands, and finally succeeded by first placing our hands 

 on the ground with a nut about a foot from our fingers, then a 

 little nearer, then on the ends of our fingers, and lastly in the 

 palms of our hands. There was a great shout when they hopped 

 on our hands the first time, our delight being indescribable. 



Finding that kneeling or bending over on the ground was rather 

 hard work, we tried holding out our hands when standing, or while 

 sitting on the benches, and they very soon came, no matter where 

 we were or in what attitude. The little creatures never seemed to 

 get tired if we remained hours at a time, and it was indeed difficult 

 to tear oneself away. Just as I would make up my mind to be off 

 one would fly over my head calling chick-a-dee-dcc in such a bewitching 

 way as to make it impossible to leave. I would sa}' to myself, "Just 

 one piece more," then throw a lot of nuts on the ground and make 

 a 'bee line' for home, never looking back for fear the temptation 

 would be too great, and I should find myself retracing my steps. 

 After a time they would come to me and follow me anywhere in the 

 park, whenever I called them, and getting better acquainted I found 

 the birds possessed of so many different traits of character that I 

 named each one accordingly. One I called the 'Scatterer, ' because 

 he stood on my hand and deliberately threw piece after piece of nut 

 on the ground, looking down as they fell with the most mischievous 

 twinkle in his eyes, as much as to say, "see what I've done," then 

 take a piece and fly away. This he did dozens of times in succession. 

 I thought at first he would rather pick them up from the ground, but 



* In BiRD-LORK for April, pp. 55 and 58, there were given accounts of experiences with the re- 

 markably tame Chickadees that passed the winter of 1898-9 in Central Park, New York City. The 

 present paper solves the mystery of their surprising confidence in man. — En. 



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