Taming- Wild Birds without a Cage. 



135 



make three cart loads. It was but seven or eight feet from the ground, so that by 

 stepping on a projecting rail the beautifully spotted eggs within could be seen. " Mr. 

 Jerome could pass close to the pile of rails without the birds leaving the nest, while 

 I could not get nearer than thirty or forty feet." At other places on the island, the 

 birds would alight on one nest while he was examining another near by. This illustrates 

 how a shy bird may become relatively tame during the breeding season, and shows clearly 

 how some learn to discriminate. 



That many birds become tame in a state of nature is well known and the subject is 

 full of interest. The Pine Grosbeak is as good an illustration of the fact as may be 

 found in this part of the world. Pine 

 Grosbeaks make their summer home in the 

 vast forests of evergreens which cover the 

 continent from Labrador to Alaska. A 

 few, it is said, have been found breeding in 

 latitude 47° in New Brunswick, and they 

 have even been recorded in summer on Mt. 

 LaFayette, New Hampshire. They are 

 irregular winter visitors to the Northern 

 States, sometimes going so far south as 

 Maryland and Kansas. In the winter of 

 1884, they were very common at Holder- 

 ness, New Hampshire, beginning to appear 

 in small flocks about the middle of Feb- 

 ruary and finally disappearing after the 

 eighteenth of March. At first they were 

 tame and could be approached without 

 difificulty, while later they became shy and 

 timid. They frequented the white pines, 

 on the buds of which they fed, but occa- 

 sionally came into the open, and sang loud 

 and merrily. 



I remember meeting a flock of these 

 plump, stalwart looking birds in a grove of 

 sapling pines on the last day of February. The woods on every side were hoary with snow 

 which had been falling for hours. When a young pine drooping under its weight of 

 snow suddenly blossomed with a bright company of these birds, you might travel far 

 to find a more attractive winter picture. A bird would sometimes drop on a branch, 

 and settle down as if going to sleep. Then suddenly aroused by the desire for 

 food he would sidle to the end of the bough, pick out the terminal or largest bud, 

 twirl it between his stout cone-shaped mandibles to get rid of the scales and then 

 swallow the resinous morsel. After seeing this experiment performed a good many 

 times, I selected a handsome male, walked up to him, and caught him with my hat, as if 

 he were a butterfly. When I stooped to pick him off the snow, he squeaked and struck 

 violently with his beak, uttering a peculiar car-r-r-r-r ! When placed on the snow again 

 he flapped about for a few moments resisting every attempt to take him, and finally rose 



Fig. 130. Female Chestnut-sided Warbler inspecting her 

 young after having served food. 



