THE OOLOGIST 



201 



knowledge of ornitology, universally 

 speaking, and one that would require 

 the co-operation of ornithologists to 

 nettle definitely, but to localize: then 

 it is not a hard matter to name 

 species that are becoming less abun- 

 dant and rare with each succeeding 

 year, provided you have a knowledge 

 of the ornitology of a certain region 

 for a large number of years. The 

 most skeptical bird student cannot re- 

 fute this assertion. 



In the densely populated regions, 

 but especially in the close proximity 

 of our big cities, bird life is most 

 assuredly getting scarcer and the 

 causes are obvious enough to the 

 most casual observer. The steady 

 and incessant growth and expansion 

 of a city causes the destruction of 

 bird haunts, as year after year, woods 

 are felled, thickets cleared, swamps 

 and marshes drained and reclaimed, 

 etc., for building purposes, ruining 

 and forever wiping out the habits of 

 bird peculiar to these associations. 

 But no matter how big a city may 

 grow and expand in urban size, there 

 always remains a rural region or 

 country surrounding it and its en- 

 largement does not necessarily drive 

 away the birds, but deprive them of 

 their former haunts as the birds move 

 and spread out farther with the city's 

 growth and inhabit the suburbs al- 

 ways around it. Yet, despite these 

 movements, the birds are decreas- 

 ing in appreciably numbers all about 

 the cities and the chief cause of their 

 diminishing numbers can safely be 

 attributed to alien gunners, cats, and 

 the boy with his rifle and cheap 

 shotgun, these being our bird's worst 

 enemy everywhere. 



Changes of environment are every- 

 where affecting our birds. The prim- 

 eval forests of Pennsylvania have 

 been all but exterminated, causing 

 the destruction of most of the Cana- 



dian fauna in this state, and causing 

 birds of tliis element to seek a more 

 congenial habitat farther north or 

 in a higher altitude possessing envir- 

 onments suitable to their nature. 

 Birds of the upper Austral and Tran- 

 sition zones are pushing up into the 

 Canadian fannsas, and even the Tuft- 

 ed Titmouse and Yellow-breasted Chat 

 are trespassing into the most boreal 

 regions in this commonwealth, where 

 a decade ago they were unknown, all 

 on account of the destruction of the 

 virgin timber and the original fanns 

 and flora. 



Although most of our birds are de- 

 creasing about our cities, it is grati- 

 fying to find others that are increas- 

 ing. In southeastern Philadelphia 

 such species that have perceptibly 

 increased during the past ten years 

 are the Blue winged and Kentucky 

 Warblers, Orchard Oriole, Redstart, 

 Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Gros- 

 beak, Florida Gallinule, Least Bit- 

 tern, Hairy Woodpecker and Starling. 

 The Starling has increased in aston- 

 ishing numbers during the past sev- 

 eral years and at the present rate of 

 its increase and dispersion bids fair 

 to soon rival the House or misnamed 

 "English" Sparrow in numbers and 

 abundance. The Yellow Warbler 

 probably shows a bigger decrease in 

 numbers in this region than any of 

 our smaller birds. The Caroline Wren 

 was beginning to increase here but 

 it has again become scarce in the 

 last four years, altho it was never 

 common. The Black-billed Cuckoo, 

 never a common bird in this vicinity, 

 has practically disappeared as 1 

 have not seen any during the past 

 three years. 



These as well as other species 

 could be cited to show how all birds 

 have increased or decreased in the 

 vicinity of Philadelphia and the con- 

 ditions are probably the same in 

 other cities everywhere. 



Richard F. Miller. 



