The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-02-04
TAMENEss OF WILD ANIMALS.

Wonderful Instances of 1t From an Is~
 land Where Life is Protected.
 That wild animals become extremely
 tame is well known. The wild quail of
 Southern California will enter gardens and nest there, and in the protected
 season l have seen a flock stand in a
 country road, jaunty male between
 them and my horse, not twenty feet
 away, moving only when I moved, and then with reluctance.
 Several years ago some residents on one of the channel islands of Southern California introduced number of black tailed deer, which were protected to such an extent that in time they dis covered that they were privileged characters and assumed nearly the ab- solute contempt for human beings held
 by the sacred bulls of India, that crowd men and women from the road. They persisted in entering gardens day and night, destroying the plants, and finally to locate them the dWellers on the island had bells fastened to them One buck made his home near the town of Cabrillo, and walked about the place and over the hills with the free dom of a dog. When a boat landed off the pier the buck ran down to greet the newcomers and share their lunch, ani became welcome guest at the barbe- cues and lobster and clam bakes
 Nearly all animal life is protected at this island. have counted half hum dred bald eagles in an eleven mile run, have. seen them take large fish from the water within easy gunshot, and they build their nests on pinacles that are not difficult of approach The sea birds are equally tame, Gulls rather in flocks few feet from those who feel them; in the winter f1ocks of cormo- rant swim into the bays, and are so tame that they merely divide when a boat passes, and fishermen often find that the cormorants take off bait al- most as fast as they can put it on. Gulls dash at bait and I have seen a long winged bird resembling the petrel follow my line. under water at cast using it's wings to fly along and take the bait, and at times scores of sea birds are seen inshore feeding upon small shrimps, paying no attention to observers photographing them,
 The most remarkable illustration of tameness to be seen here is that of the soallions, For ages the animals have held possession of a mass of rock on the shore of the islands. A few years ago many were killed by vandals, but laws were passed, and for a number of years the seallons have been protected and the rookery has increased in size until split has recently occurred, and another settlement has been estab- lished half way up the island.
 It has been the custom for years for fishermen in cleaning their fish to t1ss the refuse into the bay, and the sea- lions formed the habit of coming down to the bay at this time to dine therer upon. At first only one or two came: now band of two large bulls and sev- eral females make their headquarters at the bay or spend most of their time there, constituting a valuable sanitary corps, as they eat every fragment of fish, the gulls joining in the feast. When not feeding the sealions pass their time lying within a few feet of the beech, sleeping or playing, the fe- males and young leaping from the wa ter and going through various tricks of interest to the looker-on.
 But few feet away from the sea lions are the boatstands of the fisher men and boatmen, and boats are mov- ing out and over the sea1ions constant ly, yet they are apparently oblivious to thte men, who never molest them This has had peculiar result The enormous animals have become so tame that they almost allow the men to touch them, and readily come out upon the shore to feed from their hands. It so happened that I was upon the sands when no sealions were in sight, and upon asking a boatman where they were he began to whistle, as though calling for a dog, and to call Here, Ben!' repeating the call several times, whereupon out from among the anchored boats appeared not only Ben, but twp large bull sealions, which must have weighed half a ton, followed by two or three smaller females.-Scienti- fic American.