134 Bird -Lore 



glimpsed. As yet no Chicadees have come to nest, but at times one or two will 

 spend an hour or so with us, and this winter suet and suitable boxes will be 

 placed for them as well as for Nuthatches which we often see. Redstarts and 

 Chestnut-sided Warblers come to the beeches and oaks, but I have found no 

 nests, though they may be there. 



A hundred yards from my hillside is a meadow where Bobolinks have come 

 to nest within the last three years. There were about four pairs there this 

 spring. Red-winged Blackbirds, too, are on the decided increase. These 

 increases are very gratifying, and we are hoping that other species may come. 

 The Purple Finches are new to this immediate vicinity, and I think may be 

 held here by keeping an abundance of sunflower seeds on the ground for them. 

 They come down with the smaller Sparrows for the seeds. The bird concourse 

 is swelled at times during the summer by obscurely marked visitors which I am 

 not wise enough to identify, I am sorry to say, however, that the most careful 

 watching has not disclosed the presence of the House Wren in this vicinity. 



In order to learn the density of bird population in some of the districts on 

 the Cape, I combed over several orchards in different districts for nests, and 

 then watched results. In such a count allowance should be made for nests that 

 escaped scrutiny. None of the orchards were large. In one containing about 

 thirty trees, near a house where English Sparrows were very numerous, was a 

 Yellow Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, two Chipping Sparrows and two Robins. 

 Bluebirds, too, had nested here earlier in the spring before I came. In another 

 orchard of fourteen trees only, where cats were guarded against and where for 

 the first time English Sparrows were routed out persistently, the results were 

 proportionately better. A Bluebird family raised two young out of five eggs, 

 a Cedar Waxwing succeeded with her brood, a Robin nested and succeeded, 

 and a Song Sparrow brought out three young from a nest in a brush-heap. No 

 accommodations had been previously made for the birds in this spot, but this 

 year, by winter feeding and placing boxes and eradicating vermin, the place 

 will be prepared. In another orchard, more remote from the farm, about two 

 acres in extent, with a marshy meadow in its midst, were two Red-winged 

 Blackbirds' nests, each with three eggs, a Flicker's with nine, two Bluebirds, 

 and some Robins. A farmer who had only a few apple trees put up two Blue- 

 bird boxes and had both successfully occupied. 



By passing about copies of Bird-Lore, with its stimulating news from 

 other parts of the country and its information, I may add that the infection of 

 the bird-gardening idea has taken root quite generally in several parts of the 

 Cape, and boys, as well as landholders, are already placing bird-houses, watch- 

 ing the birds, and, some of them, destroying their cats as a first measure. 



