174 Birds in a City [FIRST WEEK 



birds which were nesting in the New York Zoological 

 Park, which is situated within the limits of New York 

 City. Part of the Park is wooded, while much space is 

 given up to the collections of birds and animals. Through- 

 out the year thousands of people crowd the walks and 

 penetrate to every portion of the grounds; yet in spite of 

 this lack of seclusion no fewer than sixty-one species build 

 their nests here and successfully rear their young. The 

 list was made without shooting a single bird and in each 

 instance the identification was absolute. This shows what 

 a little protection will accomplish, while many places of 

 equal area in the country which are harried by boys and 

 cats are tenanted by a bare dozen species. 



Let us see what a walk in late June, or especially in 

 July, will show of these bold invaders of our very city. 

 Wild wood ducks frequently decoy to the flocks of pin- 

 ioned birds and sometimes mate with some of them. One 

 year a wild bird chose as its mate a little brown female, 

 a pinioned bird, and refused to desert her even when the 

 brood of summer ducklings was being caught and pinioned. 

 Such devotion is rare indeed. 



In the top of one of the most inaccessible trees in the 

 Park a great rough nest of sticks shows where a pair of 

 black-crowned night herons have made their home for 

 years, and from the pale green eggs hatch the most awk- 

 ward of nestling herons, which squawk and grow to their 

 prime, on a diet of small fish. When they are able to 

 fly they pay frequent visits to their relations in the great 

 flying cage, perching on the top and gazing with longing 

 eyes at the abundant feasts of fish which are daily brought 



