THE PLAINS AND COLORADO 



135 



proper season, than it was in the deep forest in 

 the days of Wilson and Audubon. 



The increase during the last fifteen years of 

 the robin and meadow-lark in the bird-world of 

 the vicinity of Princeton is noticeable. 



Writing this, sitting under the trees on the 

 edge of the village, I can hear hosts of bobolinks 

 frolicking over the fields close by. In my early 

 Princeton collecting I regarded the bobolink as 

 an uncommon breeding bird. In the field from 

 which the singing comes at least fifty pair breed 

 annually. 



Another bird which appears to have increased 

 greatly in numbers during the past twenty years 

 is the Baltimore oriole. The orchard orioles 

 have always been during my experience common 

 throughout the migration and breeding season. 

 The grace and beauty of their form and color 

 enlivened every hedge-row, and their song was 

 ever present to charm the ear. It was otherwise 

 with the Baltimores ; they were in the category of 

 the bobolink. Yet to-day almost every yard has 

 its pair which nest and rear a brood ; and over 

 the very streets, when the leaves are fallen in the 

 autumn, numbers of nests of the last season are 

 to be seen. Surely all this justifies an optimistic 

 rather than a pessimistic view. 



In concluding this part of the narrative, I wish 

 to dwell for a moment on the bird known as 



