Because the Downy Woodpeckers are so often seen in the orchards, some 

 farmers are suspicious of them and kill them or drive them away, thinking they 

 are after the fruit. All Woodpeckers are innocent of any offense in that respect. 

 They would rather have one grub than a bushel of fruit. 



Birds in Cemeteries 



By Edward B. Clark 



People who are striving for effect sometimes call burial-grounds "cities of 

 silence." That's all well enough, perhaps, poetically, but in May and June ceme- 

 teries are anything but silent. The songsters foiuid out long ago that a meed 

 of protection was given them inside cemetery walls that was given nowhere else. 

 Sentiment is of course largely responsible for this, for no matter how active 

 may be the nest-robbing proclivities of the small boy, he withholds his hand in 

 the graveyard. The birds throng in the city parks during the migrations, but 

 it is in the city cemeteries that they make their homes. Oakwoods, Rose Hill, 

 and Graceland, in Chicago, resound with song all through the birds' courtship 

 season. Nearly every tree and shrul) in these burial-places holds the home of 

 a songster. In late June young robins and bronzed grackles in hundreds are 

 scattered all over the lawns. The catbirds cind brown thrashers are in every 

 thicket, and the wood thrush tinkles his twilight bell on every side. Birds that 

 in other places are shy and timid in the cemeteries become familiar and fearless. 



fjraceland cemetery is wholly wnthin the city of Chicago. Within its limits 

 birds can be found that seldom are found elsewhere. The cardinal grosbeaks 

 are rare enough in northern Illinois. T have seen only one pair in a wild state 

 in the vicinity of Chicago, and this pair I found in Graceland cemetery. The 

 male made a i)erch of the tip of a towering tree, and there with the sun shining 

 full on his scarlet coat, he sang and whistled in the perfect ecstasy of living. 

 He soon had an audience, for from all parts of the burial-ground the people 

 gathered, attracted by the magic of the voice. Had that southern songster dared 

 to give that solo in Lincoln Park I should have trembled for his life, but within 

 the cemetery walls I felt that he was safe. There are people who, when look- 

 ing at the Ijright ])lumage of a bird or listening to its sweet song, can think of 

 only one of two tilings, killing it or caging it. I heard expressed that afternoon, 

 whik' the grosbeak was singing, a dozen wishes: "Pd like to have that fellow 

 in a tage." It is my sincere belief that the first bird that .Vdam saw was pecking 

 at a cherry, and that tiie first bird that V.w saw was some .scarlet tanager flash- 

 ing across a sunlit meadow, .\tlam said, "llie bird is a thief"; Eve said, "The 

 bird is a beauty." l">om that da\' to thi^ the liand of man and the head of 

 woman have been against the bird. 



The tcmak- (.■ar(b'nal is as nuisical as her mate, though she has but a small 

 share of hi^ l)eant\. Wlieii the male carihnal had tired his throat with liis siiig- 



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