Birds and Seasons 



FOURTH SERIES 



JUNE AND JULY BIRD -LIFE NEAR BOSTON 

 By Ralph Hoffmann 



EVEN before the May migrants return, the early arrivals and some 

 of the winter residents have chosen nesting-sites in the old apple 

 orchards, and all through May and early June a student of birds 

 is kept busy follow^ing up old friends or making nevu acquaintances. Birds 

 return to their old homes with startling regularity, and yet there is a 

 considerable amount of change from year to year in the avine population 

 of a township. One species has had a successful year, and overflows from 

 an old locality, so that a pair of House Wrens appear where there were 

 none the year before, or some calamity overtakes the Prairie Warblers, 

 and the old corner where the male sang is silent. While many birds are 

 generally distributed, others are very rare, or abundant only in a few pe- 

 culiar regions. Only in extensive marshes can we expect to find- the 

 Rails and the Marsh Wrens; the Purple Martin and the Clifif Swallow are 

 found in one village, but not in the next. We may live near the edge 

 of the breeding range of certain species, and find only a few pair, while 

 to the south or north the bird becomes common. This is the case with 

 the White-eyed and Solitary Vireos. 



By the middle of June the young begin to be hatched, and the 

 parents' busiest time begins. In July the young appear in the fields and 

 lanes, and by the end of the month are wandering about with their 

 parents, learning their first lessons in geography. Some morning late in 

 the month the first Solitary Sandpiper, returning from the north, reminds 

 us that each season passes insensibly into the next. 



BIRDS THAT BREED IN THE VICINITY OF BOSTON 



Pied-billed Grebe,* Black Duck,* Wood Duck,* American Bittern, Least Bittern,* 

 Green Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Virginia Rail,* Sora Rail,* Florida Gallin- 

 ule,* American Woodcock,* Spotted Sandpiper, Bob-white, Ruffed Grouse, Mourning 

 Dove,* Marsh Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk,* Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk,* 

 Red-shouldered Hawk, American Sparrow Hawk, Long-eared Owl,* Barred Owl,* 

 Screech Owl, Great-horned Owl,* Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Black-billed Cuckoo, Belted 

 Kingfisher, Hairy Woodpecker,* Downy Woodpecker, Flicker, Whippoorwill, Night- 



* Rare, or very locally distributed. 



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