REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 67 



many specimens to the colleetion of the Natiomil Museum and of private collectors 

 as tbis. 



"To appreciate its advantages as a haunt in which to study the habits of our 

 birds one must visit it in early morning about the middle of May. At this time 

 thousands of birds are eagerly winging their way to their northern homes, and the 

 little groves of pines and the outlying deciduous thickets are tilled with hundreds of 

 warblers, liycatchers, and sparrows. Among others one may be pretty sure to find, 

 amid throngs of commoner species, numbers of Bay-breasted and Blackburn ian 

 Warblers. Should the visitor carefully scan the low thickels a Mourning or Con- 

 necticut Warbler, rare birds indeed in this latitude, may, perchance, reward his 

 search. 



"The Worm-eating and Kentucky Warblers are always present about that date, 

 though in small numbers. So, too, are the Yellow-bellied and Least Flycatchers ; while 

 the Traills Flycatcher is an occasional visitant. There is a thicket on the west bank 

 of the creek which Lincoln's Finch, long unnoticed in the district, visits each spring, 

 and I have seen seven orieight of a morning. The Scarlet Tauager, whoso bright 

 colors arrest the eye of even the most careless, liuds here a favorite resort, and the 

 Rose-breasted Grosbeak, always a prize to the collector, is a regular and common vis- 

 itor to the tall oaks that cover the eastern slopes. The northeast corner of the park 

 is the only >spot known to mo where the song of the Summer Tauager may be heard 

 with anything like certainty, for it is one of our rarest summer visitors. Not so the 

 Olive-backed Thrushes. Several of the five species are common elsewhere, but no- 

 where do they all occur so abundantly as here, even the Gray-cheeked being numer- 

 ous. The above are but a few of many species that throng the tree-tops and brush- 

 piles at this time of year. 



"To explain just why this spot of all others in the District should be the favorite 

 resort for our birds would be difficult. Rock Creek is elsewhere as well wooded as it 

 is here. Elsewhere its banks furnisb far more picturesque places, and if we can 

 suppose that birds are influenced in their choice of a resort bj^ the ;esthetic sense, 

 why arc not such places equally favored with their presence? 



"I am inclined tolielieve that the answer is to be found in the somewhat prosaic 

 reason that the gentle slopes of the creek at this point invite the early sunshine, and 

 that the succession of woods, thickets, and open spots favor the i)resence of insects 

 and seed-producing plants. In other words, that here the birds lind the exact kind 

 of shelter they require and food in abundance. 



"A list of the birds that are known to have nested within the limits of the park, 

 small though this area is, would include almost all the land birds credited to the 

 District. A catalogue of the birds of the District was prepared by Doctors Coues 

 and Prentiss several years since (188.3), and published by the National Museum under 

 the title of * Avifauna-Columbiana.' 



" As, however, having a more intimate relation to the Park, I subjoin a list of the 

 birds which are known to have nested within the Park area within recent years. 

 Manj^ of them, it is to be hoped, will refuse to recognize as valid the exclusive 

 title of possession conferred by Congress, and will continue to occupy their old 

 homos as theirs by squatters' rights. Others doubtless, let us hope a small minority, 

 will piefer to yield their ancient titles and move to more secluded spots in the ad- 

 joining territory. 



" But ninety-one species of land birds arc known to breed within the limits of the 

 District, and the following list shows that of this number sixty-one species, or 

 more than 76 per cent., breed regularly or occasionally within the Park. The 

 superior advantages it offers to bird life will therefore be readily appreciated," 



