236 EIVERBY 



In Kentucky and Illinois, and probably through- 

 out the West and Southwest, certain birds come to 

 the front and are conspicuous which we see much 

 less of in the East. The blue jay seems to be a gar- 

 den and orchard bird, and to build about dwellings 

 as familiarly as the robin does with us. There must 

 be dozens of these birds in this part of the country 

 where there is but one in New England. And the 

 brown thrashers — in Illinois they were as common 

 along the highways as song sparrows or chippies are 

 with us, and nearly as familiar. So also were the 

 turtle doves and meadowlarks. That the Western 

 birds should be more tame and familiar than the 

 same species in the East is curious enough. From 

 the semi-domestication of so many of the English 

 birds, when compared with our own, we infer that 

 the older the country, the more the birds are changed 

 in this respect ; yet the birds of the Mississippi Val- 

 ley are less afraid of man than those of the valley of 

 the Hudson or the Connecticut. Is it because the 

 homestead, with its trees and buildings, affords the 

 birds on the great treeless prairies their first and 

 almost only covert ? Where could the perchers perch 

 till trees and fences and buildings offered 1 For this 

 reason they would at once seek the vicinity of man 

 and become familiar with him. 



In Kentucky the summer red- bird everywhere at- 

 tracted my attention. Its song is much like that 

 of its relative the tanager, and its general habits and 

 manners are nearly the same. 



The oriole is as common in Kentucky as in New 



