Page 339 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

BRINGING BACK VANISHED BIRDS AND GAME 317
THE COLORADO OBJECT LESSON IN BRINGING BACK THE DUCKS
Up in Putnam County, where for five years deer have been protected, the exhibitions that are given each year of the supreme confidence of protecteddeerHterallyastonishthenatives. Theyarealmostunafraid of man and his vehicles, his cattle and his horses, but of course they are unwilling to be handled. Strangers are astonished; but people who know something about the mental attitude of wild animals under protection know that it is the natural and inevitable result of real protection.
At Mr. Frank vSeaman's summer home in the Catskills, the phoebe birdsnestonthebeamsundertheroofoftheporch. Atmysummer home in the Berkshires, no sooner was our garage completed than a phoebe built her nest on the edge of the lintel over the side door; and another built on a drain-pipe over the kitchen door.
Near Port Jervis, last year a wild ruffed grouse nested and reared a large brood in the garden of Mr. W. I. Mitchell, within two feet of the foundation of the house.
On the Bull River in the wilds of British Columbia two trappers of my acquaintance, Mack Norboe and Charlie Smith, once formed a friend- shipwithawildweasel. Inaveryfewvisits,theweaselfoundthatitwas among friends, and the trappers' log cabin became its home. I have a photographofit,takenwhileitposedonthedoor-sill. Thetrapperssaid that often when returning at nightfall from their trap-lines, the weasel would meet them a hundred yards away on the trail, and follow them back to the cabin.
" Old Ben," the big sea-Hon who often landed on the wharf at Av^alon, Santa Catalina, to be fed on fish, was personalh'^ known to thousands of people.
An Object Lesson in Protection.—A remarkable object lesson in the recognition of protection by wild ducks came under my notice in