156 



THE OOLOGIST 



Recollections of City Bird-Nesting 



Chicago the fourth city in the world 

 is in a region which is the natural 

 breeding zone of about 135 species of 

 birds. Twenty-five years ago Chicago 

 was about one-fourth its present size 

 and much of its present area lay with- 

 out the corporate limits of today. 

 Nevertheless this brief article deals 

 with a region which, even 25 years 

 ago, was more urban than rural in 

 character. 



It was in 1889 that a pair of prairie 

 horned larks displayed a preference 

 for a vacant lot, about a half square 

 in extent, lying within 3 miles of the 

 city hall and there began to build a 

 nest. The boys made use of this lot 

 for their games of ball and I am 

 afraid that the nest building attempt 

 was frustrated more than once be- 

 fore the writer found out about the 

 presence of the birds and sought out 

 their nest. This, when found, con- 

 tained two somewhat remarkable 

 wreathed eggs. 



Still nearer the city center, about 

 the same period, an excavation for 

 the foundation of a building, the con- 

 struction of which for some reason 

 was delayed, was seized upon as the 

 nesting site of a small colony of bank 

 swallows. Boys like to play about 

 such places and it became quite an 

 industry to dig out the swallows. They 

 soon abandoned the place, as they 

 must have done in any case, as a few 

 days afterward the stone masons 

 began work. 



It must have been about 1885 or 

 '86 that excavation was being made 

 for what is known as the North Pond 

 in Lincoln Park. This pit soon at- 

 tracted a kingfisher, and a friend of 

 mine discovered the nest of this 

 species where, even now, every Spring 

 the bird (or rather one of its kind) 

 is a visitor. That there is no evidence 

 of its nesting, nor indeed that it has 



a mate, is due no doubt to the cir- 

 cumstance that since the date given 

 the pit has been filled with the water 

 of this artificial pond and there are 

 no banks suitable to the construction 

 of a kingfisher burrow. However I 

 have been told that the Kingfisher 

 still nests at Jackson Park, at the 

 southern end of the city. 



I recall distinctly the excitement 

 among some of us youthful bird stu- 

 dents when, engaged in examining 

 into the nests of English sparrows, 

 with which the hollow stubs of a small 

 grove of scrub oaks were occupied, 

 was discovered a screech owl, unex- 

 pectedly incubating a set of 7 eggs. 

 This grove adjoined Lincoln Park on 

 the north and was but a short distance 

 from a street car line. It was here 

 that I remember to have seen a brood 

 of young white-breasted nuthatches, 

 now altogether rare in this and con- 

 tiguous counties. 



Among species nesting in Lincoln 

 Park (and it must be borne in mind 

 that the park's southern limit is 

 only two miles from the city hall) I 

 have found the chipping sparrow, wood 

 pewee, pellow warbler, red-eyed vireo, 

 warbling vireo, kingbird, Baltimore 

 oriole, bronzed grackle, catbird and 

 brown thrasher. None of these except 

 the oriole and the grackle may now 

 be found, save rarely, building their 

 nests in their former haunts in the 

 park. 



As late as 1906 it was my good 

 fortune to come upon what Is per- 

 haps the most unusual inst-ance of 

 a shore bird's nesting in a large city. 

 At that time the work of filling in 

 the lake front opposite the Auditor- 

 ium Hotel was in progress, and upon 

 this made land, now known as Grant 

 Park, a killdeer had scratched a place 

 amongst the rubbish of broken glass, 

 cinders, broken brick and the like and 

 when discovered was covering the full 



