Ecological Notes on Birds. 59 



each year by the birds, who came in numbers to feed on seeds 

 which they, themselves, had planted. 



In cleaning out a gutter on the top of a two-story house 

 (3217 Reading Road), I found it filled with leaves fallen from 

 an overhanging tree. These leaves, combined with soot and 

 sparrow (Passer domesticus) droppings, had formed a soil, on 

 which there was a thick growth of weeds. The seeds for this 

 growth had been conveyed there by the sparrows, as they 

 could not have reached there in any other way. In computing 

 the value of birds as destroyers of weed seeds, due credit should 

 be given them as distributors of these same seeds. This is an 

 explanation of the methods by which pernicious weeds and 

 grasses are scattered and distributed in lands where they never 

 occurred before. 



Early Birds. Cincinnati, Ohio 



From June 14 to 24, 1908, some observations were made to 

 ascertain which species of birds were earliest astir and singing. 

 June 14th, robins begin to sing at 3.40 a. m. (cloudy), followed 

 a few minutes later by the wood thrush. Thirty minutes later 

 the sparrow (Passer domesticus) began its monotonous, un- 

 musical chatter. June 24th robins begin to sing at 3.30 a. m. 

 (day clear). At this time the birds were rearing a second 

 brood. Robins were breeding in abundance here in 1909, and 

 in markedly decreased numbers in the spring of 1910. Reports 

 from Tennessee state that robins have been killed for food in 

 enormous numbers in that state during the winter of 1909-10. 

 This may account for their scarcity here. The laws of Ten- 

 nessee allow robins to be killed from October to April 15th, as. 

 game. The efforts of those bird lovers in Ohio who encourage 

 these valuable songsters to breed and multiply is nullified when 

 the birds in their migrations visit this state and are killed. The- 

 value of a robin as a food bird is very slight, while their value: 

 as a song and insectivorous bird is very great, and it is a very- 

 bad economic policy that allows them to be killed. 



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