Taming Wild Birds without a Cage. 



133 



after a long search returned with a few small grasshoppers. When one of these was 

 offered the bird would eye the squirming insect and try to seize it when held within 

 reach. Wishing to economize, I held on to the insect and nearly pulled the bird off the 

 nest. 



After discarding the tent I was able to walk up to this bird and stroke her back with 

 my hand without disturbing her in the least. Setting up the camera outside and attach- 

 ing a tube with pneumatic bulb at the end, I made a number of photographs which show 

 the Warbler sharply eying an insect and prepared to seize it when held a few inches 

 away. It would have been an easy matter to take her in the hand, though possibly 

 not without injury to the young. Their 

 early flight from the nest cut short any 

 further experiments, but what could 

 not have been done with a bird who 

 had become so tame and confiding in 

 the course of a few days ? 



The foregoing account does not 

 necessarily imply that a wild bird can 

 be induced to remain docile in the 

 presence of man for any great length 

 of time while still enjoying the free- 

 dom of its wild life. If the lesson 

 learned is to be a permanent acquisi- 

 tion, it must be often repeated, and no 

 other teachers allowed to interfere. To 

 effect this the animal must as a rule 

 be placed under restraint or in a cage, 

 where its experiences are more uniform, 

 more limited and under perfect control. 



In free life a new habit must strug- 

 gle with other competitors and is liable 

 to be suppressed quickly. However, I 

 think it has been clearly shown that in 

 the beginnings of the taming process 

 which have been illustrated, where no 

 physical restraint is used, the sense of 

 fear must be combated by a stronger and contrary impulse, such as hunger or the 

 parental instincts, which will lead the bird to undergo new experiences, and finally to 

 adopt new habits. 



Audubon has given an interesting account of some Phcebes or Pewees which nested 

 in a cave on his plantation in Pennsylvania, and became the subject of some of his earliest 

 studies and experiments in ornithology. It admirably illustrates the taming process 

 under the spur of natural instinct. ' 



" On my first going into the cave," he says, " the male flew violently towards the en- 

 trance, snapped his bill sharply and repeatedly, accompanying this action with a tremulous 



^ Ornitjiologiidl Biograp/iY, vol. ii., p. 122. 



Fig 128. Chestnut-sided Warbler family. The male, perched 

 above, has just delivered an insect to his mate, who quickly 

 passed it to the young and continued to brood. The same nest 

 is shown in Figs, 3, 11, 127, 129, and 130, 



