I30 



Bird - Lore 



not yet reported, she expects that member- 

 ship to Ije increased by several hundred. 



Mr. Ernest Harold Baynes, the active 

 organizer of the American Bison Society, 

 and a well-known writer on natural his- 

 tory subjects, has been employed by the 

 Massachusetts Audubon Society to give 

 a series of lectures in that state. He writes 

 that one result of his work during the first 

 two weeks was the securing of over one 

 thousand new members of all classes for 

 the state society. 



Field .\gent William L. Finley, now 

 working in .\rizona, writes under date of 

 May lo: "One of the most interesting 

 Audubon field meetings I ever attended 

 was on April 30, when Mrs. Finley and 

 I were invited to go afield with some of the 

 members of the Arizona Audubon Society. 

 The objective points were Silver Lake and 

 the Indian School about four miles south 

 of Tucson. Several of the teachers at the 

 school are enthusiastic bird-lovers, and 

 their influence among the one hundred and 

 fortv Indian boys and girls is wholesome. 



"The commonest bird of the desert here 

 is Palmer's Thrasher, a big, brown fellow, 

 who sings like a Mocker and nests almost 

 entirely in the choUa cactus. The Cactus 

 Wren is his companion, thriving in the 

 heat of the desert and the thorns of the 

 cactus. 



"We drove down to the Santa Cruz river, 

 where we began our observations. The 

 first bird seen was a Vermilion Flycatcher. 

 Arizona Hooded and Bullock Orioles were 

 flitting in and out among the cottonwoods. 

 One of the party found a Pyrrhuloxia, 

 a bird that has no common name that I 

 know of. In looks, he is much like a Car- 

 dinal, with his high crest, short, thick bill, 

 and breast patch of rose-red. He is the 

 finest whistler I have ever heard. 



"In the same bushes where we watched 



the Pyrrhulo.xia, one of the ladies found 

 the nest of a Crissal Thrasher, with its 

 three plain deep blue eggs. A little later, 

 another of the party discovered a Phaino- 

 pepla building in a mesquite, — another 

 bird that is easily identified by his high 

 crest and shiny black coat. In flight, the 

 white patch under the wing feathers flashes 

 as in the Mockingbird. 



"During the afternoon, we also saw 

 Mockingbirds, Canon Towhees, Lark 

 Sparrows, \'erdins, Linnets, Inca and 

 ^Mourning Doves, .\rkansas Kingbirds, 

 Red-wing Blackbirds and others. 



"Two nests of the Verdin were found. 

 One might search a long way to find a finer 

 piece of bird architecture than the Verdin's 

 home. He builds a round hall of thorny 

 twigs and mesquite leaves, with a doorway 

 in the side. 



"On the way home, we saw many Doves, 

 often in flocks, coming in from the desert 

 at sundown to visit the water holes. It is 

 a sight worth seeing, yet in reality a sad 

 one, when one knows the facts; for at these 

 water holes the Mexican hunter often 

 waits and kills these birds by the score. 

 It it too bad that no law gives them pro- 

 tection in the midst of the breeding-season. 

 Here is work for the .\udubon Society. — 

 T. G. P. 



Caged Birds Imported 



From Januar_\- i to June i there were 

 imported to the United States through 

 New York City 98,835 wild birds to be 

 kept in cages. They came largely from 

 the ports of Hamburg and Bremen. An 

 examination of the importations yields a 

 list of about one hundred species. By far 

 the greatest number were Canaries, there 

 being in all 73,458. Of these 5,661 came 

 in a single shipment. Next in number 

 were Java Sparrows, of which 3,428 were 

 received. These figures do not include 

 those birds which died en route. — -T. G. P. 



