THE MUSEUM 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. IV 



ALBION, N. Y., SEPTEMBER 15, 1S9S. 



No. 1 1 



The Feathered Friends of My 

 Door-yard and Garden. 



K. \V, VlCKIiKS. 



When the last of the latter autumn 

 days — the solemn, rather than "the 

 melancholy days," to me — are f^one, 

 and winter with all its snows and ices 

 has settled down, we delight to dwell 

 upon the domestic economies of our 

 familiar feathered neighbors, who 

 spent the summer with us, entertain- 

 ing us during many spare moments of 

 observation. 



If your door-yard and garden are 

 well supplied with trees and shrubbery, 

 or if a woods is only a few rods from 

 your dwelling, the results ofyour stud- 

 ies cannot but be abundant and inter- 

 esting. Birds love foliage, and many 

 are the natural guardian-spirits of 

 trees. With the writer, the lack of 

 door-yard and garden trees has been 

 the chief cause of the poverty of his 

 observations, while the woodlands on 

 east and west have been driven almost 

 a half a mile away. The orchard is 

 also too far away to have any influence 

 on the inhabitants of the door-yard 

 and garden. Yet, notwithstanding 

 these drawbacks, forty-four species of 

 birds have been recorded as residents 

 and visitors of this little spot during 

 the past year. Of this number how- 

 ever, only a few nested about the 

 house. The few notes which I have 

 to offer are intended rather to induce 

 others with more time and more favor- 

 able surroundings to become interested 

 in the facinating field of personal ob- 

 servation. 



One of the first birds to return to us 

 with the glad tidings of returning 

 spring is the Robin. 



A pair has nested with us for two 

 years, the history of whose household 



experiences is somewhat chequered. 

 .\ year ago they built and plastered 

 their little cottage in the garden pear 

 tree. Eggs were laid, and life moved 

 along smoothly and pleasantly, till one 

 morning a mischievous rascal, an egg- 

 sucker, in the fine, painted person of a 

 sassy Jay, broke the eggs, what he did 

 not eat, and had a fight with the Dem- 

 ocratic pair. I did not see all the 

 battle, but found a punctured egg in 

 the tanzy below and on climbing the 

 tree found the nest empty. How 

 many r.csts these sharp-eyed, hand- 

 some rascals — these house-wreckers 

 in fea'"..jrs must have laid to their 

 charge! I thought this Robin's nest 

 in its isc' ited tree safe from their 

 search and robberies. 



Yet for all this hardship and un- 

 poetic e.xperience of the day before, 

 next morning I heard Mr. Robin blight- 

 ly singing his "Cheer-up I cheer- upl 

 cheer-upl" Yssterday was wiped clear 

 out and with yesterday its experiences. 

 How many people ought to go and 

 learn of the Robins, that sufficient un- 

 to the present is the sweetness thereof. 

 Let the sunshine of the present hide 

 the shadows of the past. 



The pair immediately went to work 

 and built a nest in the old apple tree 

 in the meadow across the road, raising 

 a brood without mishap. Then they 

 built a nest in the apple tree in the 

 door yard, where they raised the sees 

 ond and last family for 1896. Thi- 

 year they came back to the same door- 

 yard tree, building on the same limb, 

 only a few feet from last year's nest. 

 Everything went well, eggs were laid 

 and hatched early in ^Iay, the four 

 young growing at a surprising rate, as 

 little birds will if you give them time 

 and worms, — when one morning an 

 evil and black spirit in the shape of a 



