176 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



no means general throughout those species. Among wild 

 animals, exhibitions of the home-finding instinct are rare, but 

 the annals of the Zoological Park contain one amusing record. 



For emergency reasons, a dozen fallow deer once were 

 quartered in our Bison range, behind a fence only sixty-six 

 inches high. Presently they leaped out to freedom, disappeared 

 in the thick northern forests of the Bronx, and we charged them 

 up to profit and loss. But those deer soon found that life 

 outside our domain was not the dream of paradise that they 

 had supposed. After about a week of wandering through a 

 cold, unsympathetic and oatless world those were sadder and 

 wiser deer, and one night they all returned and joyously and 

 thankfully jumped back into their range, where they were 

 happy ever after. 



Recognition of Sanctuary Protection. In this field of 

 precise observation and reasoning, most birds, — ^if not indeed 

 all of them, — are quick in discernment and accurate in deduc- 

 tion. The great gauntlet of guns has taught the birds of the 

 United States and Canada to recognize the difference between 

 areas of shooting and no shooting. Dull indeed is the bird 

 mind that does not know enough to return to the feeding-ground 

 in which it has been safe from attack. The wild geese and ducks 

 are very keen about sanctuary waters, and no protected pond 

 or river is too small to command attention. Our own little 

 Lake Agassiz, in the New York Zoological Park, each year is 

 the resort of hundreds of mallards and black ducks. And each 

 year a number of absolutely wild wood ducks breed there and 

 in spite of all dangers rear their young. Our wild-fowl pond, 

 surrounded by various installations for birds, several times 

 has been honored by visiting delegations of wild geese, seven 

 of which were caught in 1902 for exhibition. 



The most astounding example of avian recognition of pro- 

 tection and human friendship is the spectacle of Mr. Jack 

 Miner's wild goose sanctuary at Kingsville, Ontario, not fai 

 from Detroit. With his tile works on one side and his home 



