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CHAPTER XIV. 



TAMING WILD BIRDS WITHOUT A CAGE. 



ANY illustrations could be given of birds which in most parts of their range are 

 wild or shy while in others they are very tame, and the same principle underlies 

 them all. Wildness is due to fear which is partly inherited and partly learned 

 by experience with this wicked world. Tameness, on the other hand, comes with the 

 casting out of fear, and may be brought about by the formation of new habits which are 

 either spontaneous or forced. 



The House Sparrows of the Tuileries, and the pious Stork of Holland, Germany 

 and France, are familiar examples of birds whose near or remote ancestors are shy and 

 wary. The Stork is said to be excessively wild in the woods and marshes, yet it comes 

 with confidence to the village and town, builds its nests upon house tops and steeples, 

 and struts about the streets and door-yards in search of food. 



It would be interesting to know how long the Doves of Venice have enjoyed the 

 freedom of the Piazza del Marco. They are probably the best fed pigeons in the world, 

 and few hours pass in the course of the day when their guardian, the vendor of sacks of 

 corn, is not surrounded by his flock. They will alight all over you, and take the grain 

 from hand or mouth. The Pigeon, it is true, has been long domesticated and responds 

 more readily to friendly influences than the wild stock from which it has sprung. 



Strange and possibly true stories are told of persons who have won the confidence 

 of beast or bird. The wild bird responds to their call and the quadruped comes forth 

 from his den and takes food from their hand. Such persons are popularly supposed to 

 possess a mysterious power of fascination or a superior knowledge of woodcraft, but all 

 this belongs in the catalogue of vulgar errors. It depends less upon the individuality of 

 the person than that of the animal. Individual variation knows hardly a limit, whether 

 in man or beast. Some birds are naturally tame and confiding, while their next door 

 neighbors of the same kin and living in the same field may possess a temperament of 

 such an opposite character as to baffle every attempt to dispel their fears. 



The power of remaining motionless like a stone or stump in the woods is often 

 enough to win the temporary confidence of both mammal and bird, and many will doubt- 

 less recall illustrations of this fact from their own experience. This suggests an early 

 episode which impressed itself rather strongly at the time. With raised fishing-pole in 

 hand I was sitting quietly by the river, possibly watching the common sunfish or bream 

 standing guard over their nests, which they defend with such fiery pugnacity, when I 

 suddenly had a " bite." Looking up, I saw a Kingbird comfortably perched on the end 

 of my rod. He doubtless had a nest in the alders close by. 



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