1126 



/OOI.OC.KAI, S()( IKTY ]5L"I.I.1'.TI N' 



tliis year to t.-ike their |)l.Ke. altliough these 

 three families stayed with me for four years. 

 The barn swallows in the horse shed are still 

 living; but the ones in the loft have not re- 

 turned, nor the ehimney swift in same loeation. 

 The red squirrels have driven most of the rob- 

 ins away from my fir trees. One season I picked 

 up twenty-one youn<!; birds on my lawn killed 

 by those marauding robbers, and every year 

 they destroy most of my tame pigeons. This 

 year we h;id but two pair of robins breeding in 

 our fir trees. 



Last year a pair of blue birds took posses- 

 sion of the fence post. Blue birds are be- 

 coming so rare that I took great care not 

 to go near them until they should become 

 thoroughly settled in their home. A little while 

 afterwards I was attracted to the fence-post 

 by the fact that I liad missed the call of tiic 

 blue bird and feared some accident had befallen 

 them. When I went to examine the hole in the 

 fence post, a wren flew out and began to scold 

 me. Upon making an examination I discov- 

 ered that the male blue bird upon entering the 

 hole had accidentally slipjicd its leg down a 

 crack in the wood and its foot had prevented it 

 from ])ulling it through and freeing itself, con- 

 sequently the poor thing had died there from 

 starvation. But the mcist astonishing part of 

 this story is, that the wrens had taken posses 

 sion of the building site and made their nest 

 on top of the body of the blue bird. This year 

 there has not been a blue bird i» the ichole 

 distance of tico and three-quarter miles fo th<' 

 depot. 



Last year a robin built in a bush at the cor- 

 ner opposite the ]\Lirk Twain Library but it 

 did not come back this year. The one on the 

 telephone pole oiiposite the oriole on t'le left 

 was on hand, but the cat-bird on the right has 

 disappeared, after four consecutive 3'ears build- 

 ing in the same spot. The yellow-breasted chats 

 still occupy their usual location. The phoebe 

 bird under the high bridge is missing; the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak is on hand again this season ; 

 the bank swallow which came last year again 

 occupied its hole in the bank ; the humming bird 

 after four consecutive years of occu))ancy of 

 the same spot, is missing; the indigo bunting- 

 did not appear this spring. The swamp black- 

 bird, apparently were as jilentiful as usual, but 

 I missed several pair of the bobolinks. The 

 robin near the depot did not appear this year, 

 and the three pair of orioles are also missing. 



This is the record of a short stretch of time. 

 There are no new birds coming to take the place 

 of the birds that have left, and the record of 



this little stretch of covnitry road can be dupli- 

 cated all over the United States. It means 

 that our song-birds are not only rapidly de- 

 <Tc.ising, but they .arc on the verge of extermin- 

 ation, and the total extinction of our birds is 

 only .1 matter of ;i few years. As Dr. Horn- 

 aday says it i^ time for the American people 

 to w.ike u|>. for outside of the sentimental value 

 <if birds, then- is a money value which will 

 appeal to our ni incy-lo\ing brothers. We have 

 almost reached the condition of the birdless 

 country described by Longfellow, and so far 

 the only efforts to counteract this by acclima- 

 tization is the introduction of the ])estiferous 

 English sparrow and the squeaking starlings. 



Our .ancestors h.id one or more martin boxes 

 on every farm, on the roof of almost every 

 public buililiiig in the villages, on the lawns of 

 all the siiiiurbau houses, besides which the 

 skulls of old horses, and the slaughtered cat- 

 tle were jireserved on the farm and fastened 

 to the trees and old fence posts for the birds 

 to build in. The old-fashioned barns were alive 

 with the barn swallows, and the eaves encrust- 

 ed with the mud nests of the cliff swallows. 

 The robins cinered the lawns and grass plots; 

 the wrens and blue birds occupied every knot 

 hole, and also made nests in the old hats which 

 the farmers used to nail up under the eaves 

 for that purpose. The whistle of the bob-white 

 could be heard in every field that you passed 

 by; the meadow larks were thick on all the 

 meadows ; we had no serious scourge of insects. 

 But now, in spite of the spraying of our trees 

 and our gardens, according to the most careful 

 estimates, the insects cost us the immense sum 

 of $420,000,000 a year. 



The following is a summary of five years' 

 observation on a short stretch of country road 

 at Redding, Connecticut: 



New arrivals : One golden-winged wood- 

 pecker in apple tree in back of my studio ; one 

 bank swallow on Dart Meeker's farm. 



The following are missing: Three pair of 

 wrens around my studio ; one pair of barn swal- 

 lows ; one jj.iir of chimney swifts — from horse- 

 shed: four pair of robins from around the 

 house; two (lair of robins at ^L^rk Twain Li- 

 brary corner: one pair of cat-birds, a little be- 

 yond toward Redding Station; one pair of 

 indigo birds; one pair of humming birds; one 

 )).iir of robins near the station; three pair of 

 orioles near the station ; one pair of king birds, 

 opposite my farm house: one pair brown 

 thrashers oi)i)osite my farm house: oiu- pair of 

 bobolinks in m_v pasture lot. 



