THE OOLOGIST. 



year to year in all resident and mi- 

 gratory birds. Rarely there is a spo- 

 radic increase noted, like the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak in Norwich and the 

 protected cave-swallows at Thurston 

 Lillibridge's. But in general a mark- 

 ed decrease all around. I have not 

 space to discuss the cause of the de- 

 cline, nor time to enumerate all the 

 diminishing species. Sand swallows, 

 martins, chebecs woodpewees, night 

 hawks, kingbirds, crested flycatchers 

 and mourning doves are greatly re- 

 duced. Cedarbirds used to breed in 

 the apple trees from the Broadway 

 schoolhouse to Bean Hill. Readers of 

 The Bulletin can remember when 

 there were twenty colonies of purple 

 martins in town. I attribute the de- 

 crease wholly to the English spar- 

 rows, for some people will not put up 

 and repair martin boxes just to see 

 the never-ending sqpabble between na- 

 tive box dwellers and the sparrows, 

 and I can recall the time when I 

 found the great upland plover breed- 

 ing on Plain Hill, Wauwecus, on Pros- 

 pect Hill opposite Greeneville, and on 

 McCall, Blue and Bashan hills in Boz- 

 rah. These eggs were like wood- 

 cock's in color and markings, but 

 were slightly larger and more uni- 

 form. We all can remember when 

 killdeer plover in June and July were 

 breeding and cunningly leading us 

 from their eggs on Peppers Hill, the 

 Cobb farm, Sandy Desert and Brews- 

 ter's Neck, and farmers all about us 

 were familiar with the wailing cries. 

 Now I know of but four breeding 

 places for this plover in New London 

 county. 



Bob White first called to us at the 

 bungalow May 22. We have a dozen 

 varieties of his showier cousins from 

 California and Arizona in the cottage. 

 We also have up here more than a 

 hundred birds that live in glass 

 houses. They will not actively enter 

 into the question of food supply with 



the native birds outside, for their 

 bellies are full of arsenical soap. 

 These exotics were all selected for 

 their dazzling plumage, but they do 

 not overshadow our own local birds 

 of beauty. Take the gaudiest sextette 

 in the cases — the cock of the walk, 

 the scarlet ibis, the quetzal, king par- 

 ret, mountain lory and red trogan, 

 and in a side by side competitive 

 show how many points would they 

 score over grosbeak , tanager, oriole, 

 redwing, bobolink, and ruby-throat? 

 — C. L. RAWSON in Norwich, Conn., 

 Bulletin. 



Comments. 



We think to no one cause can be at- 

 tributed the noticeable decrease of 

 Bird Life in our eastern states. 



The English Sparrow is a great fac- 

 tor in driving away Wrens, Martins, 

 Swallows and Bluebirds. 



Purple Finches have suffered se- 

 verely in Western New York and 

 Orioles, Vireos and Bobolinks to a 

 lesser degree from the universal 

 spraying of fruit trees with arsenical 

 poisons during the insect season. 



In the vicinity of our large cities 

 the hunter almost annihilates every- 

 thing from a Flicker up unless they 

 leave before the game season opens 

 and the Italian laborer is with us 

 the season through ostensibly hunt- 

 ing woodchucks and hence, usually 

 tolerated by the farmer, yet ye Edi- 

 tor knows from personal observation 

 that all is game when the son of 

 Italy thinks he is not watched. 



Again, over large tracts, deforesta- 

 tion is responsible for a noticeable 

 lack of many species. In Western 

 New York, this alone has greatly re- 

 duced the numbers of resident Gros- 

 beaks, Tanagers, Thrushes, Redstart, 

 etc. 



And the cat ever increases in num- 

 bers in proportion as the human pop- 

 ulation increases. — Ed. 



