44 BIRDS OF THE 



to the year 1900 the Garden may have been 

 an important way station can only be con- 

 jectured, as the area was filled in and laid 

 out as a Public Garden only fifty years ago, 

 the land being reclaimed from the flats of 

 the Charles River, and the growth of the 

 trees and its development into the attrac- 

 tive garden that it is have been slowly go- 

 ing forward in the intervening years. 



Mr. Torrey in the seventies and eighties 

 of the last century found many migrant birds 

 present and recorded the names of sixty- 

 five North American birds which he had 

 seen on the Common and in the Garden. 

 Of their numbers in his years of observation 

 he says in his essay "On Boston Common" : 

 "Now it is only a straggler or two; now 

 a considerable flock of some one species; 

 and now a miscellaneous collection of per- 

 haps a dozen sorts." Again : " During every 

 migration large numbers of warblers visit 

 us" ; and he names twelve species, adding, 

 "No doubt the list is far from complete, 

 as, of course, I have not used either glass 

 or gun; and without one or the other of 



