3 86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



NOTES ON A FEW OF OUB BIKDS. 



By HAERY MEREILL. 



MUCH has been said and written in regard to the fact that birds 

 temporarily change their habits and customs, and adapt them- 

 selves to surrounding circumstances so as to meet their immediate 

 wants and necessities ; and these changes are by no means rare, but 

 occur whenever anything is interposed which may conflict with their 

 usual methods of practice. In some cases these habits have been per- 

 petuated, and have become the established custom of a number of spe- 

 cies. Our martins and chimney-swallows have almost entirely deserted 

 their original quarters in hollow trees for those that have been fur- 

 nished by the advent of man. Some sea-birds, that in Labrador build 

 nests and raise their young in the usual way, in the south abandon 

 their eggs to the sand and sun, which perform the duties of a parent 

 in the most acceptable manner. It is noticed that birds which usually 

 build on the ground, particularly sparrows, frequently build in bushes 

 or even in low trees. This is very often the case in pastures where 

 the nest and eggs would be liable to be destroyed by being trodden on 

 by cattle or sheep ; in such a situation I have found a nest of the song- 

 sparrow at a height of six feet. 



During the past few years I have met with many instances where 

 birds have so changed their habits ; and the purple grackle or crow- 

 blackbird has furnished several examples of this kind. These birds 

 are quite common, and rule with undisputed sway over the groves in 

 which they dwell. One of these nesting-places is situated on the banks 

 of the Kenduskeag River in Maine, in a most beautiful spot, where 

 steep ledges rise abruptly from the water's edge, and are covered with 

 a rich growth of pine and cedar, together with wild flowers and climb- 

 ing plants. Here these birds for many years have built their nests, a 

 single tree often containing several of them ; they are very bulky 

 affairs, composed of mud, weeds, and similar materials, and lined 

 with hay. 



Peace and prosperity dwelt in this little colony until a few years 

 ago, when the destroyer, man or rather the father of the man, the 

 boy commenced to collect birds' eggs ; then this spot offered a rare 

 field for his depredations, and one that was not overlooked, so that in 

 a short time many were robbed of home and its treasures, and driven 

 from their ancestral grove. Thereupon, large numbers of the birds 

 proceeded to a lumber-yard situated on the river a short distance be- 

 low, and, seeking there that peace which the grove failed to give, com- 

 menced building their nests in the huge piles of boards which lined the 

 water's edge, and in this peculiar situation they began anew the battle 

 of life and reared their young. 



