176 Birds in a City [FIRST WEEK 



of blasting and the building operations have driven them 

 to more isolated places, and of their relatives there remain 

 only the little screech owls and the sparrow hawks. The 

 latter feed chiefly upon English sparrows and hence are 

 worthy of the most careful protection. 



These birds should be encouraged to build near our 

 homes, and if not killed or driven away sometimes choose 

 the eaves of our houses as their domiciles and thus, by in- 

 vading the very haunts of the sparrows, they would speedily 

 lessen their numbers. A brood of five young hawks was 

 recently taken from a nest under the eaves of a schoolhouse 

 in this city. I immediately took this as a text addressed to 

 the pupils, and the principal was surprised to learn that 

 these birds were so valuable. In the Park the sparrow 

 hawks nest in a hollow tree, as do the screech owls. 



Other most valuable birds which nest in the Park are 

 the black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos, whose depreda- 

 tions among the hairy and spiny caterpillars should arouse 

 our gratitude. For these insects are refused by almost all 

 other birds, and were it not for these slim, graceful crea- 

 tures they would increase to prodigious numbers. Their 

 two or three light blue eggs are always laid on the frailest 

 of frail platforms made of a few sticks. The belted king- 

 fisher bores into the bank of the river and rears his family 

 of six or eight in the dark, ill-odoured chamber at the end. 

 Young cuckoos and kingfishers are the quaintest of young 

 birds. Their plumage does not come out a little at a time, 

 as in other nestlings, but the sheaths which surround the 

 growing feathers remain until they are an inch or more in 

 length; then one day, in the space of only an hour or so, 



