AMERICAN AVARBLERS. 



6.', 



]\ along fence rows and stone walls and in al^andoned o-ravol 

 ])its. Twenty years ago Yellow Warblers freqnented tlie 

 shrnbbery abont my honse, and built there or in the neio-hbor- 

 ing apple trees, bnt I have not seen a nest abont the honse for 

 ten years. Mneh of the shrnbbery remains abont the ])laee, 

 and I attribnte this abandonment to the fact that many chang- 

 es have been made in the neighborhood, thns removino- most 

 of the thickets in which the birds also bnilt, thns my gronnds 

 have become isohited from other breeding places. I do not 

 think that there is any less nnmber of Yellow AVarblers in 

 Eastern Massachnsetts in snmmer now, taking the natnral va- 

 riation in seasons into acconnt, than there w as when thev were 

 to be fonnd everywhere, bnt the i-emoval of so nnich shrnl)- 

 l)ery has cansed them to go to sections where this has not 

 been disturbed, and, in fact, I can always find them as abund- 

 ant as they ever were in snch j^laces. 



Bird lovers are dejiloring the absence of onr native birds 

 from onr towns and cities and are saying that they have been 

 driven av/ay by the English Sparrow, when really this species 

 has had comparatively little to do with this depletion. Birds 

 will not live where they do not have the shelter of foliage, 

 and thicket inhabiting species, like the Yellow Warbler, seek 

 native shrnbbery, and will not live where they do not find it. 

 It has become a very commendable practice for towns and 

 cities, and also for many owners of large estates, to set apart 

 portions of woodlands as parks; l)nt far less commendable is 

 the habit which most park owners have of clearing np these 

 w^oodlands, removing what to many seem bnt unsightly thick- 

 ets, cutting off the lower limbs of trees, and in other wavs 

 polishing up the grounds until bnt few natnral features re- 

 main. When I visit one of these sections, that I have often 

 wandered over in the past, for the first time after it has been 

 thus " beautified ", and miss the delightfully tangled thickets 

 where Nature ran riot with vine and shrub and fern, and look- 

 in vain for the birds, I experience the same sensation that T 



