The Audubon Note Book. 



175 



birds, while the mother tended the lonely birdling in 

 the nest until it was able to fly, when she brought it 

 to visit its brother and sister. They were all by this 

 time old enough to fly, so, although we grieved to 

 part from our little friends, we determined to reward 

 the wise and loving parents by giving their children 

 the freedom all birds love so well. We opened tiie 

 cage door, and after a few timid twitters and flutters, 

 the young birds flew out, and the re-united family 

 flew away in the sweet summer air. As for the can- 

 ary, virtue had to be its own reward, but it seemed 

 to satisfy him, for he followed his departing guests 

 with a beautiful burst of song. — H. H. Daingerfield 

 in the Swiss Cross. 



PREDATORY BIRDS. 



Every disciple of Audubon knows how much 

 the birds about country houses are usually frightened 

 by the discharge of a gun, but probably there are a 

 good many of those disciples who never saw a bird 

 show real pleasure when a gun was fired. The 

 nests of three robins can be found within five rods 

 of my house, besides a number of nests of swallows, 

 bluebirds, ground birds, etc., and I have in conse- 

 quence been very careful about doing anything that 

 would tend to frighten the old birds. That they 

 appreciate kindly attentions has been amply demon- 

 strated by their freedom in approaching not only 

 members of my own family, but neighbors and 

 strangers also who have called on us. 



But the other day a crow blackbird came into a 

 maple where one of my robins had a nest, determ- 

 ined, I suppose, to destroy the eggs. The black 

 rascal had been there before, but he had been driven 

 away by the robins every time. This time he 

 avoided attack by hopping from limb to limb instead 

 of leaving the tree. The robins were in great dis- 

 tress. They flew hither and thither, screaming with 

 anxiety and anger, and dashed at the enemy with a 

 courage and vigor that ought to have whipped him 

 quickly but did not. Seeing that the nest of a song 

 bird was in danger, my boy, a lad of eleven, ran for 

 his rifle, and by a lucky shot brought the blackbird to 

 the ground. The projectile cut across the backbone 

 of the bird and "tumbled," making a terrible scream- 

 ing noise as it flew off over the field beyond. 



Did the robins fly away in alarm at all that noise? 

 Not at all. On the contrary. The mother bird 

 went at once to the nest, while the male began such 

 a cheerful song that it would have been a dull ear 

 indeed that did not hear words of thanks in it. 



"Was it wrong to kill the blackbird ? I do not 

 think so. Every one knows that there is a deadly 

 war between different sorts of birds, although one 

 may scarcely call it a war when the aggression is all 

 on one side. On the one side we find crows, crow 



blackbirds, bluejays, owls and hawks; on the other 

 side song birds. I do not care for the purpose of 

 this argument, whether the predatory birds do the 

 farmers any good by killing vermin or not. I do 

 know the song birds are destroyed, both while in 

 the egg and afterward, by the predatory birds. 

 Suppose a crow does eat insect eggs on the meadow, 

 would not the song birds which one crow destroys 

 in a season do the farmer much more good ? Surely 

 to remain neutral is to encourage the destruction of 

 song birds. 



I do not wish to advocate the indiscriminate 

 slaughter of any sort of predatory birds, but having 

 read so many appeals for the lives of predatory 

 birds I cannot help urging bird lovers to exercise 

 their chivalrous instincts if not their common sense, 

 and occasionally take the side of the weak against 

 the strong. John R. Spears. 



Note by Editor. — Every effort on man's part to 

 defend the weak against the strong is an interference 

 with the conditions by which the existing balance of 

 life is maintained, and may possibly have results 

 widely different from what were anticipated. Nature 

 is regardless of the individual but careful of the 

 species, and as regards singing birds which tend to 

 multiply rapidly, the checks imposed on that tend- 

 ency by predatory birds is necessary to save them 

 from constantly increasing beyond the limits of their 

 food supply, a condition of things which would en- 

 tail far more suffering, and render life far less toler- 

 able and happy for them than it is under existing 

 conditions. Predatory birds enjoy life themselves, 

 and contribute to the sum of its enjoyment by those 

 on which they prey. At the same time these gen- 

 eral considerations need not always influence our 

 conduct in individual cases. The existing balance 

 of life is being constantly modified by the progress 

 of settlement, which favors some families at the 

 expense of others, and it is only when organized 

 and systematic efforts are taken for the eradica- 

 tion of particular species or genera of birds that we 

 may anticipate grave evils from the disturbance of 

 the machinery by which the balance of life is re- 

 adjusted to new conditions. 



Song of the Prairie Lark. — In a recent num- 

 ber of the American Magazine appears an interest- 

 in article under the above title from the pen of Mr. 

 Ernest E. Thompson. The western meadowlark 

 has hitherto had scant justice done to his powers of 

 song, but Mr. Thompson not only fully describes 

 this liquid melody but has written it out in musical 

 notation so that any one may reproduce it on an in- 

 strument. The article is illustrated by two figures 

 from Mr. Thompson's pencil. 



