Page:Bird-lore Vol 05.djvu/25

 Io Bird-Lore

the occasion and How to the hand After working off gradually to some distance, we moved ﬁfteen or twenty feet. When this move was made he seemed much puzzled. but soon saw the familiar hand and ﬂew ﬁrst to a l1C211"h_\‘ branch and then directly to itr This process was re- peated several times, until ﬁve birds were tamed.

On one occasion. a Nuthatch took a nut, but dropped it when alighting on a branch. Instead of ﬂying down and getting it, he stood ﬂapping his wings slightly while I stooped down, picked it up and handed it to him,

When the Nut- hatches had become well used to taking heechnuts from our hands we tried hold, intr a nut between the thumb and foreﬁnger, to see if they would stay and eat i, At first they would ham, met away on either side, trying to loosen

it; but, if we held on tightly. would finally pound at the nut and soon break off enough of the shell to get the meat. Later they were perfectly content

m l'IIE Luuxot'r [0 stav on our hands

and eat for sexeral minutes at a time, and would light on our caps, our shoulders, or any part of our person almost as readily as on a branch. If one happened to catch us without a nut he would look all around between our fingers, under our hands, into the openings in our gloves

and up our SlCL s in search of one. Once or twice, when I had no

glove on. one has mistaken nn linger for suut. and has pounded it until he nearly drew blood.

ted Nuthatches and Chickadecs came to us in different parts of the woods, frequently a quarter, and occasionally halt :1

Later the Red - htt-

mile from rhr l“"lﬂ:ll hauling-ground, and they would sometimes follow us for a considerable distance. They came [0 us. if within hearing. when we “lustlml the Chickadr-e's [blur/w note, and we have had them