94 BIRDS OF THE PUBLIC GARDEN 



to building their nests in one corner of the 

 domain at that time. So it would seem as 

 if the species made no gain in numbers 

 within the Garden for a period of twenty 

 years. In 1902 the number had doubled 

 that of 1901, but there were then only four 

 pairs. In 1903 the number had more than 

 doubled again, and the record shows ten 

 pairs nesting. In 1904 there were fourteen 

 nests ; in 1905 eighteen nests ; in 1906 thirty- 

 two nests. The year 1907 marked a dim- 

 inution of pairs, as the number of nests 

 observed was but twenty-five, and in 1908 

 about the same number was recorded. This 

 diminution may have been due in part to a 

 severe pruning of the English hawthorns, 

 which left them no longer the thick trees 

 coveted for nesting which they had been. 

 The consequence was that some pairs re- 

 sorted to the tops of the tallest deciduous 

 trees for nesting-sites, and doubtless there 

 were not favorable places enough for as 

 many as the numbers of 1906. Some of the 

 surplus passed over to the Common, for 

 there was an increase in the number of 

 pairs which nested there. 



