88 BIRDS OF SWOPE PARK 



CONSERVATION OF BIRDS. 



Birds are beset by enemies on every hand. Around our 

 homes they are disturbed by man, who picks the roses and 

 lilacs, or prunes the vines and bushes that hide the nests of 

 his feathered friends; frightening the old birds, and often, 

 unwittingly, shaking the eggs or the young out of the nest. 

 Roaming cats sneak up onto the nests in the early twilight, 

 or in the daytime stalk the old birds. The young birds that 

 have just left the nest are the easiest victims, and but few 

 escape. 



Out in the woods, the haw r ks and owls and squirrels and 

 crows are more numerous. They are always hungry and al- 

 ways hunting. It is a case of wit against wit, or, perhaps we 

 should say, instinct against instinct; instinct of self preserva- 

 tion and care of young, pitted against instinct of food secur- 

 ing: maternal love against pangs of hunger. It is a ceaseless 

 round of kill or be killed; eat or die of starvation. 



On the whole, it is all for the best. The ceaseless strug- 

 gle for existence becomes a weeding out process in which the 

 weaker go first, leaving the stronger; the ones with most 

 highly developed instinct; the ones most concealingly colored; 



