WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS 



delicate processes of the dark room, in the art of winning bird 

 babies and parents, 'it is not a man's work. No man ever has had 

 the patience to remain with a bird until he secured a real character 

 study of it. A human mother is best fitted to understand and deal 

 with a bird mother." 



This is the basis of all my field work, a mute contract be- 

 tween woman and bird. In spirit I say to the birds, "Trust me and 

 I will do by you as I would be done by. Your nest and young 

 shall be touched as I would wish some giant, surpassing my size 

 and strength as I surpass yours, to touch my cradle and baby. I 

 shall not tear down your home and break your eggs or take your 

 naked little ones from the nest before they are ready to go, and 

 leave them to die miserably. I shall come in colors to which you 

 are accustomed, and move slowly and softly about, not approach- 

 ing you too near until your confidence in me is established. I 

 shall be most careful to feed your young what you feed them; 

 drive away snakes and squirrels, and protect you in every way 

 possible to me. Trust me, and go on with your daily life. For 

 what small disturbance is unavoidable among you, forgive me, 

 and through it I shall try to win thousands to love and shield 

 you." 



That I frequently have been able to teach a bird to trust me 

 completely, these studies prove; but it is possible to go even fur- 

 ther. After a week's work in a location abounding in every bird 

 native to my state, the confidence of the whole feathered popula- 

 tion has been won so that I could slip softly in my green dress 

 from nest to nest, with not the amount of disturbance caused by 

 the flight of a Crow or the drumming of a Woodpecker. This 

 was proved to me when one day I was wanted at home, and a 

 member of my family came quietly and unostentatiously, as she 

 thought, through the wood to tell me. Every Wren began scold- 

 ing. Every Cat-bird followed her with imperative questions. 



