VOL. IT. | Oregon's Imported Songsters. 9 
I found a universal disposition, upon the part of the people of 
Portland and vicinity, to give to the imported species credit for 
every bird note heard. It is not probable that the single pair of 
Luscinia philomela, even if they survived after being released, fur- 
nished music for the entire region about Portland, and yet I found 
plenty who in all sincerity informed me that nightingales had sung 
about their homes every night during the spring and summer of 
1890. - 
Credit in this case is, in all probability, due to the russet-backed 
thrush ( Zurdus ustulatus ), which is very abundant in the Willamette 
Valley, and is much given to site aed sedi the long twililight hours 
of early summer. 
The “ West Shore,’’ of March, 1889, in an article relating to the 
Society for the Importation of European Song Birds says: ‘‘ Among 
the first to appreciate the action of this society were members of 
the Oregon Alpine Club, who at once took steps to supplement it | 
by bringing from the Eastern States several of the most desirable song 
birds, such as the famous mocking bird of the south, the cardinal 
grosbeak or red bird and the joyous bobolink. These birds, also, 
will arrive early in the spring, and will receive, as will also the 
others, the fostering attention of the club and the German society 
until they can propagate in sufficient numbers to be past all aa 
of extinction.’ 
I was unable to learn whether the Eastern species had been ob- 
tained, but think that they were not released with the German im- 
portation. 
Mr. Frank Dekum also informed me that a prominent Chinese 
merchant of Portland had ordered a number of song birds from 
his native country, as a personal contribution to the list of Oregon’s 
songsters; his first effort in this direction was not successful, owing 
- to the absence of a proper person to care for them on shipboard. 
The birds had been sent for a second time, however, and would 
reach Portland, it was hoped, in time to be released hetere the 
es season of 1891. - 
- This formidable array of importations would suggest to one un- 
acquainted with ornithology of Oregon, a singular absence of native 
tee _ song birds. This is far from being the case. A glance at a list of 
: the birds of that State will show such noted songsters as the russet- — 
— backed and dwarf thrushes, western robin, winter, and Parkmann’s 
