that are given each year of the supreme confidence of
protected deer literally astonish the natives. They are almost unafraid
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 Seaman's summer home in the Catskills, the phoebe birds
nest on the beams under the roof of the porch. At my summer 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 friendship
with a wild weasel. In a very few visits, the weasel found that it was
among friends, and the trappers' log cabin became its home. I have a
photograph of it, taken while it posed on the door-sill. The trappers
said 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-lion who often landed on the wharf at Avalon,
Santa Catalina, to be fed on fish, was personally 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 the
pages of "Recreation Magazine" in June, 1903, when that publication was
edited by G.O. Shields. The article was entitled,--" A Haven of Refuge,"
and the place described well deserved the name. It is impossible for me
to impress upon the readers of this volume with sufficient force and
clearness the splendid success that is easily attainable in encouraging
the return of the birds. The story of the Mosca "Haven of Refuge" was so
well told by Mr. Charles C. Townsend in the publication referred to
above, that I take pleasure in reproducing it entire.

One mile north of the little village of Mosca, Colorado, in San Luis
valley, lives the family of J.C. Gray. On the Gray ranch there is an
artesian well which empties into a small pond about 100