290 BIRDS OF FIELD, FOREST AND PARK 



we are anxious to believe that the same friends 

 return to us every spring, for we love to hail 

 them as old acquaintances. It seems highly 

 probable that the majority of birds do return 

 to familiar localities; in fact, it has been defi- 

 nitely proven in several instances that an in- 

 dividual has returned to a familiar haunt year 

 after year, even occupying the same nest. I 

 have seen a Robin on arriving in the spring, go 

 at once to the old nest under our porch, and 

 after mating, begin housekeeping either in the 

 old nest, or a new one built close beside it. This 

 bird, a male, had every appearance of being 

 perfectly familiar with the surroundings. It 

 seems clear that frequently one of a pair, usually 

 the male, will lead his new mate to the old nest- 

 ing place where for several seasons, perhaps, the 

 brood has been reared in security. 



In my boyhood, the way to school was along a 

 road bordered for some distance on one side by 

 an old stump fence which for many years had 

 successfully withstood the ravages of the ele- 

 ments. A hollow stump root, occupied year 

 after year, as the nesting place of a pair of Blue- 

 birds, attracted much attention from the pass- 

 ing children. I recently learned that the root 

 still shelters each year a Bluebird family, and 

 upon further inquiry, a man some seventy years 

 of age informed me that in his boyhood, too, 

 it was the home of these heralds of the spring. 

 For more than sixty years the old stump has 

 been the abiding place of Bluebirds and it would 

 be very interesting to know if the occupants today 

 are descendants of the original householders. 



