WINTER BIRDS OF SWOPE PARK 73 



WINTER BIRDS OF THE PARK 



The shelter offered by the thickets and woods of the Park 

 especially along the rocky sheltered ravines, forms quite an 

 attraction for birds in the winter, and every year a few repre- 

 sentatives remain of a number of species that regularly go 

 farther south. 



These stray winter residents include quite a number of 

 species that nest in the Park, such as the Robin, Bluebird, 

 Towhee, Mockingbird, Meadowlark, Red-headed Woodpecker. 

 It is impossible to tell whether those remaining for the winter 

 are individuals that nested in the Park, or whether they are 

 birds that nested farther north and in their migration south- 

 ward, got no farther than this latitude. 



During the Christmas holidays of 1915-16, a flock of sev- 

 eral Bluebirds and Robins was found in the sheltered recesses 

 of Shiloh Hollow. They twittered contentedly in spite of the 

 fact that there were several inches of snow on the ground. 



On January 1st, 1916, three Meadowlarks flew across the 

 street at the northwest corner of the Park. They were seen 

 again a week later, but the following week was very cold with 

 a coating of ice over all outdoors, and after this period of ten 

 degrees below zero, no more was seen of the Meadowlarks 

 until time for return migrants. The Robins and Bluebirds also 

 disappeared after this extreme cold. 



The Mockingbird is reported here for the winter by Mr. 



