8 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



THE BIRDS OF MY CITY GARDEN 



Ever since I came to live — and it is a whole generation now — in the 

 old-fashioned house with a garden in front of it on the top of Beacon 

 Hill, the first week in April a pair of robbins has come to the garden and 

 about two weeks later a pair of shy, quiet hermit thrushes has arrived. 

 It is an interesting question whether in each case these are the same pair. 

 How long are birds supposed to live? I should be glad of light on this 

 point. 



On the morning of April 19th of the present year, on looking out 

 from the dining room window into the yard, I noticed under the big 

 linden tree a small brown bird huddled together as if from fear, and 

 as if trying to hide under the low brick wall. I thought at first that the 

 bird was a sparrow, and wondered why he was thus alone, when the 

 linden tree was full of his noisy mates, but looking more closely I recog- 

 nized our old friend, the hermit thrush. Then presently I observed a 

 black and white cat, who has the unwelcome habit of visiting our yard. 

 I waved my newspaper and shouted to the cat, who moved a little, and 

 in a moment the thrush had the courage to fly up into the linden tree. I 

 went out into the garden and drove the cat away and the thrush was saved 

 — for the time. He had evidently been hypnotized by the cat. 



For several winters a big owl used to come to the trees in our garden 

 and he frightened away all the sparrows. I wish he would come again, 

 but alas! I believe some boys, throwing stones at him, hurt him and he 

 afterwards died. 



On April 16th a junco visited the garden and was picking up grass 

 seed with the sparrows; a purple grackle also came, but he kept a little 

 apart and looked lonely. 



On April 18th — a cold wet day — I saw a downy woodpecker knock- 

 ing with his bill against the trunk of an old elm tree just below the gar- 

 den; the day following he was in the linden tree close to my window, so 

 that I had a fine view of his brilliant red head. 



In my notebook for April 20th I have: crows calling in the early 

 morning hours; 22nd, gray day, robin sings all the morning. 



In the spring of 1917 and again in 1918 — oh, wonder of wonders, 

 in a city yard! — for several morning;s and evenings, the hermit thrush 



was heard to sing! Annie L. Sears. 



EGRET AT TYNGSBORO. 



There is a large mill pond in our town and through July and August 

 when the water is low there are extensive mud flats exposed. There, partly 

 concealed in my boat, I have spent many pleasant hours. On Tuesday, 

 Sept. 3, I had a very interesting trip to these same mud flats. Black- 

 crowned night herons, green herons (saw great blue heron many times, 

 but not this trip) ; greater yellowlegs, semipalmated, solitary, spotted and 

 least sandpipers, and, finest and rarest of all, an American egret. Hav- 

 ing a fieldglass, I watched him at my leisure, the bird sometimes standing 

 for half an hour or more in water 6 to 8 inches or more deep, and again 

 taking short flights to a mud flat; his immaculate plumage contrasting very 

 noticeably, where he preemed his feathers undisturbed. Later, after talk- 

 ing about him with other observers, I concluded that the bird stayed there- 

 abouts a week or more. William Blanchard. 



