FLORENCE A. M ERR I AM. 15 



In going outside of the city to look for birds Wash- 

 ingtonians are peculiarly favored, for the suburban car 

 lines carry them out so quickly that even the few free 

 hours of a busy day may be used to great advantage. 

 One of the most accessible places is also one of the 

 best for birds. From the 7th Street end of the U 

 Street car line it takes only fifteen minutes to reach 

 the entrance of the Zoological Park, where the earliest 

 birds gather. Here on a chilly spring morning the 

 air has been fairly ringing with the sweet minor whis- 

 tles of Field Sparrows answering each other across the 

 bare hills. 



In April the low sunny pine woods on the way to the 

 animal houses are a favorite singing gallery for flocks 

 of the slate-colored Snowbirds which, minor songsters 

 though they be, warble a cheery lay that leads very 

 pleasantly to the louder chorus of summer. Beyond 

 the pines, around the out-door animal houses and the 

 buffalo yards where seed-eaters can pick up a living, 

 the handsome White-throated Sparrows collect, and 

 their piping whistle is most grateful to the ear, for it 

 has all the purity and freshness of a spring morning. 



In May and June as you enter the Zoo gates the 

 low wooded hills on the right are almost sure to be 

 echoing with bird songs. Cardinals, Tufted Titmice, 

 Indigo-birds, Catbirds, Chats, Oven-birds, Scarlet 

 Tanagers, and Wood Thrushes sing there commonly, 

 and I have seen numbers of Black-polls and a Bay- 

 breasted Warbler there earlier in the season. On May 

 4, 1898, I noted twelve species between the Zoo en- 

 trance and the antelope yards, including the Black 

 and White Creeper and Prairie W^arbler. 



