THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 403 



THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS AGAINST THEIR NATURAL 



ENEMIES. 



Those who are successful in assembling birds about their 

 homes are likely soon to find that they have also inadvert- 

 ently attracted creatures to prey upon them. AYhen our 

 winter colony of birds was at the height of its numbers, in 

 Januar}^ 190o, it was noticed that the birds were growing 

 nervous and easily frightened. Soon one Avas seen to be 

 minus a tail. Then their numbers began to decrease. An 

 investigation revealed the cause, — two cats and a Sharp- 

 shinned Hawk. One day during my absence the Hawk 

 struck a Blue Jay within twenty feet of the window. If we 

 expect to conserve our small native land birds and increase 

 their numbers, something more becomes necessary than 

 protection from the gunner, the small boy, or the milliner's 

 agent ; for in woods where all shooting is prohibited the 

 enemies of birds, particularly Hawks, squirrels, Crows, and 

 Jays, are likely to increase in numbers, while the smaller 

 birds decrease. This was the case in the Middlesex Fells 

 Reservation, soon after the ^Metropolitan Park Commission 

 took it. Four years' experience on my own place in protect- 

 ing birds from gunners resulted in a very decided increase 

 in the numbers of squirrels. Crows, and Jays, and a corre- 

 sponding decrease among the smaller birds. Apparently less 

 than ten per cent, of the smaller birds raised any young in 

 1902. During a long stay on the estate of Mr. William 

 Brewster, at Concord, Mass., in the l)reeding season of 1903, 

 it became evident to me that the numbers of the smaller birds 

 breeding in his woods had decreased much in the previous 

 six years. No shooting had been allowed for several years 

 on this estate of nearly three hundred acres. The owner had 

 protected the game and birds from destruction bv nian ; but 

 the results, so far as some of the smaller wood birds w^ere con- 

 cerned, were disappointing. The Wood Thrushes nearly all 

 disappeared. Where there had been five pairs of Redstarts 

 breeding a few years before, only one pair was seen in 1903, 

 and they disappeared later. Comparatively few birds were 

 able to rear their broods that year, except the Robins and 



