ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



will show of interesting young birds. The wild wood ducks 

 frequently decoy to the flocks of pinioned birds, and oc- 

 casionally mate with one of them. This year a wild duck 

 mated with one in the park, and would not desert the brood 

 even when the little downy birds were being caught and 

 pinioned. Such devotion is rare indeed. In the top of one 

 of the most inaccessible trees in the park a pair of black 

 crowned night herons have built their rough nest of sticks 

 for several years, and from, the pale green eggs hatch the 

 most awkward of nestlings, which nevertheless flourish on a 

 diet of small fish. When they are able to fly they pay 

 frequent visits to their friends in the great flying cage, 

 perching on the top and gazing with longing at the abundant 

 feasts of fish which the birds inside are enjoying. This is 

 the only duck and heron thus to honor the park, although 

 many other species are common at the time of the migra- 

 tions. 



Of the birds which in the spring and fall teeter along the 

 edge of the Bronx River, a pair or two of spotted sandpipers 

 remain throughout the summer, content to lay their eggs in 

 some retired place where there is little danger to them or to 

 the fluffy balls of long legged down which later emerge. 

 Formerly the red tailed hawk and the great horned owl 

 nested in the park, but of late they have retreated to more 

 isolated places, and of their families there remain only the 

 sparrow hawk, and the little screech owl. The former is a 

 most valuable bird if people only knew it, as most of his food 

 hereabouts consists of English sparrows and starlings. 



When a dainty little pair of sparrow-hawks elect to build 

 their nests under the eaves of a house they should be en- 

 couraged to the utmost. These and the much shyer shrikes 

 are our only hope in keeping down the number of the foreign 

 intruders. In the park the hawks nest in a hollow tree, and 

 the screech owls, which, too, should be unmolested, also lay 

 their white eggs in a tree. When the hawks cease their good 

 work at dusk, the screech owl looks out from his retreat, 

 quavers his little song and launches out to hunt down the 

 troublesome mice and rats; and so the two birds divide the 

 twenty-four hours between them in doing good deeds for 

 mankind, and yet both are persecuted almost wherever 

 found. 



Then there are the black and the yellow billed cuckoos, 

 valuable birds both, ridding the trees of thousands of fuzzy 

 caterpillars. Their nest is a frail platform of twigs, and 

 their light blue eggs are always two in number. The belted 

 kingfisher bores into the bank of the river, and in the dark 

 chamber at the end, raises a family of six or eight. Young 

 cuckoos and kingfishers arc the funniest of all young birds. 

 Instead of their plumage coming out a little at a time, the 

 quill sheaths grow unbroken into long and slender struc- 

 tures, and the little birds look as if clothed in an armor of 

 bluish sticks, one row overlapping the next like the tiles on 

 a roof. 



Two woodpeckers make the park their home, the little 

 black and white downy, and the well known flicker or ' ' high- 

 holder." Both, of course, nest in holes in trees, homes dark 

 and full of splinters, but infinitely more cheerful than the 

 sooty chimneys where the young chimney swifts first open 

 their eyes, twitter and are happy until they can spread their 

 marvellous sicklelike wings and fly all day. They hatch 

 from eggs as white as they themselves are dingy brown, and 

 their nest is a mosaic of twigs glued to each other and to the 

 bricks of the chimney by their mother's .=;aliva. 



Who would ever think that the dainty little ruby throated 

 humming bird is a near relative of the stubby billed swift ? 



And yet, if we look into the hummer's nest in the Zoological 

 Park when the young birds are just hatched, instead of the 

 long needlelike bills of the parents, the nestlings will be seen 

 to have short, broad beaks very much like those of the swift. 

 There is small danger of the humming bird's nest being dis- 

 turbed — a tiny bunch of plant down, tied firmly with 

 strands of cobweb and covered with lichens, exactly like a 

 hundred of the stubby knots on any tree. 



Five species of flycatchers are represented; the least fly- 

 catcher, wood pewee, phoebe, crested flycatcher and king- 

 bird. The first two prefer the deep woods, the third a 

 bridge beam, the fourth a hollow tree and a door mat of 

 snakeskin, the fifth an apple tree. The American crow, of 

 course, is found in this little world of birds, and a rare cousin 

 of his, a smaller copy of himself, the fish crow, also nests 

 here. A single pair of bluejays nest in the park, but the 

 English starling occupies every box which is put up. This 

 is a handsome bird and a fine whistler, but when we realize 

 how surely he is elbowing our native birds out of their rights 

 his beauties vanish and we perceive he is as much of a villain 

 as the English sparrow. Our beautiful purple grackle and 

 meadow lark and redwinged blackbird; the orioles, both 

 Baltimore and orchard, rear their young in safety here, 

 while the cowbird imposes on many of the smaller species. 



The indigo bunting, rose breasted grosbeak, cardinal and 

 scarlet tanager form a quartet of beauty of which any 

 locality may well be proud, and among the more sombre 

 hued seed eaters we find the towhee, swamp, song, field, and 

 chipping sparrows, and, unfortunately, though as a matter 

 of course, passer domesticus, which only wholesale and 

 systematic shooting has prevented from overrunning the 

 w'hole park. The bank and barn swallows all through the 

 summer skim over field and pond and nest in the places 

 from which they have taken their names. And the rough- 

 winged swallows also make the park their home. Four 

 vireos hang their dainty pensile nests in the Zoological Park, 

 the white eyed, red eyed, warbling and yellow throated; and 

 of the typically American family of warblers we number the 

 redstart, chat, Maryland j'ellow throat, oven bird, yellow, 

 blue winged Lawrence and black-and-white warblers. 



The house and Carolina wrens lead their numerous 

 progeny about the park, levying heavily on injurious insects 

 and "bugs." The catbirds and robbins are among the most 

 abundant breeders, while young chickades and white 

 breasted nuthatches are less often seen attended by their 

 parents. The bluebird haunts the hollow apple trees, and 

 of the last family of birds, the thrushes, the veery, or Wilson, 

 and the incomparable wood thrush sing while their mates 

 cover their treasures closely with their warm breasts. 



IMPORTANT NOTICE. 



Large palms and foliage plants arc greatly needed, for 

 decorative purposes, at the New York Zoological Park and 

 the New York Aquarium. Members of the Society and 

 their friends, having such plants, now grown too large for 

 their conservatories, are earnestly requested to present 

 them for use in the Park and Aquarium. The Secretary's 

 office will send a representative to properly arrange the ac- 

 ceptance of each gift and its transportation. 



