SCIENTIFIC PAPERS. 



SUMMER BIRDS OF SHAW'S GARDEN. 



BY OTTO WIDMANN. 



During the summer of 1908 the writer noted on twenty 

 visits to the Missouri Botanical Garden forty species of birds 

 occurring under such circumstances that he is entitled to 

 regard them as breeders in the Garden, although actual proof 

 was not forthcoming in every case. Six species are classed 

 as more or less regular visitors from near-by breeding grounds. 

 This number does not include the score or more of transient 

 visitants which in their bi-annual passage through our region 

 stop at the Garden for a short time in spring and fall, nor 

 those northern guests which come to us in fall, spend the 

 winter with us, and leave us again in spring. 



The total absence of those species which make their nests 

 in old woodpecker holes or in natural cavities in trees is ac- 

 counted for by the lack of nesting accommodations. Suit- 

 able bird boxes placed in different parts of the Garden would 

 undoubtedly attract the Bluebird and the Purple Martin, 

 probably also the Tufted Tit, Chickadee, Bewick's Wren, 

 Great Crested Flycatcher and Screech Owl, all of them 

 species which have begun to modify their old way of nesting 

 by accepting artificial nesting sites. House Sparrows, which 

 are likely to take possession of bird boxes intended for Mar- 

 tins, can easily be trained to let them alone by allowing them 

 to hatch their eggs, but robbing them of their young ones 

 before they are able to fly. Such bird boxes become at once 

 abominable to the Sparrow tribe and are severely left alone. 

 After the Martins have built their nest and begun to lay eggs 

 Sparrows are kept off by the Martins themselves. 



The Bluebird, feeding mainly on the ground, prefers a box 

 not more than eight to ten feet from the ground, while the 



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