226 BIRDS OF THE PUBLIC GARDEN 



kindly contributed to me by the respective 

 observers. Miss Bertha Langmaid writes 

 under date of February 28 : ** You may be 

 interested to know that at four-thirty 

 o'clock this afternoon I saw and heard the 

 European Blackbird. He was in a tree in 

 the centre of Commonwealth Avenue about 

 halfway between Berkeley and Arlington 

 streets and was giving a song suggesting 

 our robin. It was not loud, but soft and 

 very sweet, yet decided enough to attract 

 the attention of others beside myself." 



Dr. Charles W. Townsend writes : " As to 

 the European Blackbird, I saw him on 

 March ist fly up from a grass-plot on 

 Marlborough Street between Clarendon 

 and Dartmouth streets and alight on the 

 vines of a house. I hope some time to be 

 awakened by his song, which will be a 

 pleasing contrast to that of Passer domesti- 

 cus.'" This record indicates that the bird 

 was making use of a wider range of the 

 Back Bay streets than had been supposed 

 and that he was still ranging through that 

 district when March opened. 



