Show LITTLE ANIMALS MAY BE TAMED WITHOUT CAPTIVITY john bushby tells how bushy led fr ends were taught to lose fear patience an important essential my first experience ot taming aels was as very oung schoolboy when on a bird s nesting foray the weasel or rather the squirrel was caught asleep in the hole of a tree this squirrel atvas tamed bolens volens and had many a hard day at the tread mill my object however in writing now Is to demonstrate how very m ich more satisfactory and interesting it I 1 to hate your pets with full liberty in one of the pets their native haunts and yet get them so fearless that they will come to your call even coming into the house and go into our pockets in search of food there must be many hundreds of peo pie situated in tar better circum stances than I 1 am for the experiment u my particular neighborhood is not prolific in squirrels food being scarce in the first place however there is one essential and that Is patience it was possibly eight years ago that I 1 noticed in the autumn one or two of these animals feeding on the yew berries close to my dining room window when I 1 showed myself off they a ull speed aitho it much idea of taming them I 1 put some bar celona nuts at the toot of the tree and wag much gratified to find that the soon disappeared A aidin of nuts was then laid to the window sill and be foie long these also desai feared after that the window was opened and nuts placed on the floor the first real ex citera ent was when t left the i aper ban and sat motionless wl list one of them shoved his little head deep down secured a nut and ran away to eat his prize in all the initiatory stages to accustom them to my presence ab solute stillness was necessary the next process was to get them to take a nut out of my hand and this was excessively tiling as many a time I 1 have sat tor halt an hour in a cramped position with the squirrel within a foot or two fearfully nerv ous whisking his little tall after this it was comparatively plain sailing and rapid progress was made as the fol lowing anecdotes will demonstrate it was not so very long before it was not I 1 that sought them but they that be came regular beggars they would tap at the window to attract attention and it was seldom that I 1 could res st the appeal on wet windy days it was a certainty that they loyld lay siege to mv smoking room window and aft er exhausting my generosity so that I 1 refused to put more nuts out they would seek an open window and I 1 would hear their little pit a pat along the passage to my door when writ ing with the window open it there were not nuts available the boldest would jump onto the table explore my desk walking overy my writing with his dirty feet it may be mentioned that on their account I 1 have never kept a cat nor do I 1 keep a dog in the house which makes their taming easier no doubt there is no question that they lecog nize people as friends although they will readily take food from any one in the house in the open air they are m ich harder to approach but I 1 have had one or two that in the woods would come to my whistle and climb up my legs unfortunately as I 1 have traveled a good deal of late years the tamest have disappeared tommy I 1 am sure is dead I 1 had known her for four or five years and I 1 expect she died a natural death although I 1 have had them tame I 1 purposely re trained from handling them once tommy was very lame with a bad toot and she allowed me to examine it but that is the only time I 1 attempt ed it |