Son^ Birds in Europe and America. 



T31 



home in our orchards or among the shade 

 trees along the streets of villages and 

 towns, or even sometimes within large 

 cities. A good example of this latter class 

 is the warbling vireo, which Nuttall char- 

 acterizes as a bird '* almost confined to our 

 villages and even cities." He says that it 

 is " rarely observed in the woods ; but 

 from the tall trees which decorate the 

 streets and lanes, the almost invisible musi- 

 cian, secured from the enemies of the for- 

 est, is heard to cheer the house and cottage 

 with his untiring song," and that he has 

 heard it singing as late as October 2. Its 

 song, says Mr. Thomas Mcllwraith (in 

 *' Birds of Ontario "), ''is soft, subdued and 

 flowing, like the murmuring of a hidden 

 brook in the leafy month of June." The 

 beautiful yellow warbler is one of our com- 

 monest orchard birds ; and if the bluebird is 

 the most delightfnl of our birds, this is the 

 most lovely, with his plumage of mellowest 

 gamboge-yellow, streaked with richest 

 chestnut-red on breast and sides, and 

 pretty, cheerful song. He is not only 

 beautiful and tuneful, but useful as a de- 

 stroyer of insects infesting fruit trees, 

 which constitute his only food. 



This list of familiar, attractive and use- 

 ful songsters might be greatly extended ; 

 but enough have been mentioned to show 

 that the United States is not so badly off 

 in the matter of song birds as might ap- 

 pear. We have them in abundance, but 

 they are treated with indifference — or, what 

 is worse still, snubbed by the perverted sen- 

 timent which prefers the detestable house 

 sparrow to the bluebird, the house wren or 

 the purple martin. When that worse than 

 useless foreign vagabond was introduced 

 to this country, boxes were immediately 

 put up for his accommodation, and every 

 means taken to protect him. Yet, none of 

 our native birds, no matter how useful, 

 beautiful or melodious, was considered 

 worth the trouble. Had the same steps 



been taken to encourage and protect those 

 of our native species which are most wor- 

 thy of such attention, there is no question 

 that our towns and villages and city parks 

 would by this time have become full of 

 bluebirds, wrens and other attractive and 

 useful birds, whose place is now taken by 

 that rank weed among birds, the European 

 sparrow. Successful as has been the intro- 

 duction of the latter pest, attempts have 

 been made to naturalize various European 

 song birds, but they have all proven fail- 

 ures, as might have been expected had the 

 matter been properly considered. It should 

 be remembered, in this connection, that 

 the climate of this country is exceedingly 

 different from that of Europe — especially 

 the British Islands — which is characterized 

 by milder winters and cooler summers, 

 while our winters are severe and with fre- 

 quent changes of temperature, and our 

 summer heat of tropical intensity. There- 

 fore, few of the resident European species 

 could stand the vicissitudes of our climate. 

 Again, birds which in the mild climate of 

 England are resident throughout the year 

 would, if brought to this country, be forced 

 to migrate or else perish; while migration 

 being but an inherited instinct, followed by 

 the predecessors of existing individuals of 

 each species for thousands of generations, 

 this instinct serves them to no purpose in a 

 strange country, but, on the other hand, is 

 apt to lead them to destruction, since, 

 when the season for migration arrives, they 

 are as apt to fly directly out to sea as not, 

 and thus be destroyed. 



Let us, therefore, instead of continuing 

 to deprecate our supposed scarcity of song 

 birds and attempting the remedy by futile 

 importations of foreign species, encourage 

 and rigidly protect those which the bounty 

 of nature has provided for us, and of which 

 we have every reason to be proud. 



Robert Ridgwav. 



