THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 31. MAY, 1903. No. 5. 



STORY OF THE BUTCHER BIRDS. 



OLIVER GIBBS, PRESCOTT WiS. 



The engraving of the butcher birds, L. borealis, represents seven 

 nestlings I tamed in the nest in a crab apple tree, at Lake City, Min- 

 nesota, about thirty years ago, and the adult bird from a picture 

 found in one of the Minneapolis stores. The nest was near a place 

 where I was working nearly every day during the last half of their 

 period of nestling growth. The mother bird, at first very savage, 

 became so reconciled to my fondling of her babies that at length she 

 would sit on a limb almost in reach of my hand and say nothing. 

 I took the little birds out of the nest just before they were ready to 

 fly, cut a limb off the crab tree, put them on to it about as they are 

 seen in the engraving, carried them to our residence half a mile 

 away atid turned them loose in the trees in the front yard over 

 night. In the morning I called them down, replaced them on their 

 perch, carried them a mile farther to the business street of town, 

 took them to a meat market, filled them full of Hamburg steak so 

 they would feel a little sleepy and sit still while Mr." Phillips across 

 the way photographed them. Even then it took us nearly an hour 

 to get them all quiet enough at one time to make the camera do its 

 work, and one or two of them, as will be seen in the picture, had to 

 be taken almost on the fly. I took them back to our house and gave 

 them their freedom in the yard, feeding them occasionally as they 

 would come down at my call from the trees. In the course of a day 

 or two the old bird flying over discovered them and coaxed them 

 gradually away. I saw her doing it, and she met with much annoy- 

 ance between the young birds' inclination to stay with us and their 

 natural instinct to follow her. For several days I would occasionally 

 see some of them in the neighborhood and recognize them from their 

 willingness to be approached. At last, I think they all got away 

 into their wild condition. 



