30 BIRDS OF SWOPE PARK 



Since this was written a macadam boulevard has been 

 begun along the west slope of the hollow, cutting a broad 

 swath through what was the jungle home of Towhees and 

 Thrashers. 



This section also includes the picnic ground with its shel- 

 ter house. This spot is frequented by great crowds of people 

 throughout the summer. Many of the picnickers wander off 

 along the paths into the more secluded jungle to the east. 



Blue-winged Warblers nest regularly along the dry slopes 

 of the Hollow, arriving in the latter part of April. They are 

 beautiful yellow birds with bluish shade to the wings and back. 

 They can be most easily identified by their queer insect-like 

 song, an inhaled note followed by a queer grasshopper-like 

 exhaled note. 



A Yellow-breasted Chat also has here a rendezvous of 

 his own, in perfect keeping with its reputation except that the 

 region is now not as secluded as we should expect the Chat to 

 choose. Perhaps the site was selected a few years ago, before 

 the picnic grounds were arranged, and when the region was 

 not so frequented as it is now. The Chat has continued to re- 

 turn in spite of the gay colors and loud voices of the picnic 

 parties. I wonder how many of these gay strollers ever notice 

 his crazy tilts and darts in the air, or hear his idiotic calls and 

 jeers and ejaculations! 



Very few of the wanderers in the Park are ever attracted 

 by the lisping sizz of the Blue-winged Warbler. They will hear 

 only the clearer notes of the Cardinal and the Meadowlark and 

 Thrasher, and may be thrilled by the wonderful melody of the 

 Wood Thrushes, but they lose the silvery fairy-bell tinkle of 



