24 



JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



MINOR NOTES. 



It is like parting with old friends 

 when woods we have known long and 

 traversed often go down before the un- 

 satiable axe. Yet they must go, and, 

 going, change to some extent the bird 

 life. These changes bring some spe- 

 cies in greater abundance, and drive to 

 other and more favored spots those 

 once abundant, or cause them to mod- 

 ify their nesting habits. The relative 

 abundance of different species in a 

 given locality is constantly changing, 

 while the total of bird life does not 

 change much from year to year. 



The chimney has afforded so safe and 

 convenient a nesting place to the Chim- 

 ney Swift that, without doubt, they are 

 now more abundant and widely distrib- 

 uted than they were before the days of 

 civilization. The Eave and .the Barn 

 Swallow now nest plentifully over a 

 wide extent of territory that could 

 have afforded no chance for residence 

 in the early days, and the Bobolink 

 now sings where once the forest stood. 



Civilization has its compensations as 

 well as its drawbacks and if we ever 

 learn the lesson of our kinship with 

 the wild thing, and protect instead of 

 kill, many a wild bird may look toward 

 a future brighter than the wilderness 

 can ever afford. 



In my boyhood days the Grackles 

 nested in the evergreens and seemed 

 content, but later when a dam and 

 change of water level made many a 

 stub with suitable cavity for nesting, 

 they changed to these, and for years 

 have nested in the stubs and in the 

 bushes about, over the water away 

 from shore. 



Tree Swallows came, too, and nested 

 in abundance. The stubs are falling 

 now and the Swallows and Grackles 

 are moving away. Last year the 

 Grackle colony was small; soon there 

 will be few or none nesting here. 



We see few new birds now, but last 



May a Scarlet Tanager was welcomed 

 one morning. We hope he will come 

 again. 



Each year the Red-shouldered Hawks 

 come back to their old homes, but we 

 have looked long and vainly for the 

 Red-tailed, though they have been all 

 around us. 



The evening woods no longer ring 

 with the chorused song of Hermit 

 Thrushes — only a solo hereand there — 

 but the Wilson's evening song comes 

 clear and strong from every grove in 

 early summer. The White-crowned 

 Sparrows migrate regularly, but in no 

 great abundance, and sometimes are 

 seen quite late in the spring, but there 

 has never been any evidence that they 

 had the slightest intention of nesting. 

 Until actual breeding specimens are 

 produced we may well question its 

 nesting in the State. 



Mr. Briggs' note is of interest, how- 

 ever, since it directs attention to the 

 possibility. 



The winter has been barren of bird 

 life, and bleak and long, but a little 

 more patience and we shall hear the 

 song the Song Sparrow sings. 



C. H. MORRILL. 

 Pittsfield, March, 1901. 



THE BITTERN IN CAPTIVITY. 



by 



J. M. SWAIN. 



Read Before the Maine Ornithological 

 Society at Brunswick, Dec. 28, 1899. 



It was in the summer of '89 I first 

 made the acquaintance of the Ameri- 

 can Bittern (Botaurus Lentiginosus) 

 though I had known the bird at sight 

 and had watched them at a long dis- 

 tance off, ever since I was old enough 

 to wander along the banks of Wilson's 

 stream, that wended its way through 

 field, meadow and woodland near my 

 home. I knew but little of its habits. 



