CHAPTER XI 



MAKING BIRD SANCTUARIES 



THE best place to study wild birds is on a 

 reservation, for there birds have greatly 

 lost their fear of man, and primitive con- 

 ditions have been largely restored. In one of the 

 southern sea-bird colonies I have photographed 

 Royal Terns standing unafraid on the sands not 

 twelve feet distant. They had become so accus- 

 tomed to the warden in charge that they had regained 

 their confidence in man. At Lake Worth I saw a 

 gentleman feed Scaup Ducks that swam to within 

 two yards of his boat. In thousands of dooryards 

 throughout the country wild birds, won by kind 

 treatment, now take their food or drink within a few 

 feet of their human protectors. The dooryards have 

 become little bird reservations. I have several 

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