400 USEFUL BIRDS. 
hairless caterpillars, with chopped lean meat and a few earth- 
worms cut up, will make a good substitute for the natural 
food. Those who wish to experiment in this way should 
read the chapter on taming and feeding birds in Nature Study 
and Life, by Prof. C. F. Hodge. They may thereby avoid 
mistakes, save much trouble, and prevent a useless sacrifice 
- of bird life. 
Our experience in attracting Bluebirds, Wrens, and 
Chickadees about the house by means of food and nesting 
boxes proves conclusively that we may easily domesticate 
these birds. Our experiments with the Chickadee will serve 
to illustrate how a species may be induced to leave its nest- 
ing places in the woods to nest and live about dwellings 
and under man’s protection. We first cut down all the de- 
caying trees near the house, leaving the birds neither dead 
wood in which to make holes, nor natural hollows in which 
to find shelter, — but not before we had put up artificial nest- 
ing boxes on the house and on the near-by trees. This was 
done in the fall, that the birds might become accustomed to 
the change before another nesting season, and that they might 
find shelter in the boxes during the cold winter nights. It 
seems remarkable that Chickadees which naturally breed in 
decayed stumps or hollow trees should come to seek the 
shelter of old tin cans in winter ; but eventually they did so, 
going early to these shelters, and nestling together there in 
company for mutual protection from the cold. 
In the mean time, food was put out near the house win- 
dows, where nesting boxes had been put up. In the spring 
a single pair of Chickadees nested and reared seven young 
in a wooden box fastened to a window sill. The next year 
two pairs reared young in boxes within two rods of each 
other ; one was on the house, the other in an apple tree near 
by. The present year (1906) three pairs have reared young, 
and two of them have successfully brought off two broods 
each. In 1905 a pair accepted a wad of cotton placed in a 
box, dug out a hollow in it, and reared young there. This 
nesting box is situated upon a window frame three feet from 
an outside kitchen door. The illustration (Plate LIII) shows 
the bird and her nest. 
