ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



525 



COMMON MURRE. 



The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak is not abun- 

 dant in eastern Xew York, and although his 

 champions claim that he is a bonnie singer, they 

 can not prove it by the bird himself. But to the 

 eye he is fine, even though he is "no great hand 

 at the pipes." 



The Baltimore Oriole, dean of the faculty 

 of feathered architects, is much too rare ; for a 

 thousand times the number that now visit our 

 village streets and woods would be none too 

 many. His swinging nest, preferably hanging 

 from a down-drooping terminal twig of an elm, 

 is one of the most wonderful manifestations of 

 bird-wisdom and architectural skill that America 

 produces. 



Although practically all Americans have now 

 been educated entirely beyond the killing of 

 song-biids, — ihe most valuable friends of evcri) 

 farmer and fruit grorver, — there is danger in tlie 

 air. From southern Europe there have come to 

 this country, for revenue only, hundreds of thou- 

 sa"ds of Italian laborers by whom every song- 

 bird is regarded as legitimate prey for the pot! 

 Every camp or large settlement of Italian labor- 



ers is a center of song-bird destruction. Look 

 out for them ! Curb them ! The laws are en- 

 tirely adequate ; please see to it that they are 

 enforced. By the laws of the state of New 

 York, no unnaturalized alien may carry fire- 

 arms ; and the penalties for doing so are very 

 severe. Even in New York city, the Zoological 

 Society has had to put forth a great effort to 

 stop the wholesale killing of song-birds, by 

 Italians, within two miles of our Park! 



AVe greatly regret the fact that throughout 

 the North generally, the pestiferous English 

 Sparrow has to a great extent driven out the 

 House Wren and the Martin. Both those 

 speciLS loved the haunts and companionship of 

 man. until the coming of Ahab. the sparrow. 

 If the latter could be exterminated, the other 

 two species would immediatelv return. 



Of all the feathered foresters that specially 

 look after the insects that damage forest trees, 

 the most showy and picturesque are the 

 Golden-Winged and Red-Headed Woodpeck- 

 ers. Pcor indeed is the forest or wood lot that 

 lias not at least one of them. The former is 



