CHAPTER XXI 



TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS 



Like one in danger ; cautious, 

 I offered him a crumb, 

 And he unrolled his feathers 

 And rowed him softer home 



Than oars divide the ocean, 

 Too silver for a seam, 

 Or butterflies, off banks of noon, 

 Leap, plashless, as they swim. 



EMILY DICKINSON, In the Garden. 



FEEDING and taming go together, for the only way to 

 a bird's heart is through his crop. If we have a tempting 

 morsel in the palm, they will fly to our hands. Had Emily 

 Dickinson offered a meal worm instead of the "crumb," 

 the result might have been different (see Fig. 138). We 

 must learn enough about a bird's food to know what to offer, 

 and we need to come into sympathy with a bird's life to 

 know how to offer it so that the proffer may be accepted. 



As indicated on the chart, bird foods may be divided 

 into vegetable and animal, and among the latter different 

 kinds of insects form the most important part. Artificial 

 foods will also require a little attention for reasons to be 

 developed later. It is a fortunate coincidence that many 

 of the most useful birds are also the most beautiful and 

 our best songsters. We may divide them into three classes. 



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