52



F. E. Blaauio—About Birds in North America



being very rocky the trees looked starved and some of them even

dying. However, on the parched lawns I found some birds which

were new to me in a wild state, and which made me forget the heat

and the dust. The most conspicuous amongst them were numerous

Purple Graekles (Quiscalus quiscala ), who went about mostly in pairs, the

male with beautiful purple glossy plumage and with an enormously long

boat tail. Besides these Graekles, the migratory Thrush or “ Robin ”,

as the Americans call him (Turdus migratorius), was running about

everywhere, being quite tame, as our Blackbirds or Song Thrushes are

in Europe. Broadpark was the next place I went to, to see wild birds

after the zoological collection had been examined, and the harvest was

a good deal better than it was in Central Park.


Broadpark is situated in the outskirts of New York, and is partly

converted into a zoological park and partly into a botanical garden,

of which, again, a part is the unaltered natural forest. Accordingly

the wild birds are more numerous and much more at home there than

in the crowded artificial Central Park. In Broadpark the most common

and most conspicuous bird is, again, the Migratory Thrush, which is

a summer visitor only—and Graekles, with their long boat-shaped

tails are also very numerous on the grass. In more secluded woods

I found the pretty Cat-bird (Galeoscoptes carolinensis) singing its song

on a branch 8 or 20 feet from the ground. The song, although pretty,

seemed to me to be of not much melody. Besides, some rufous

Thrushes, probably Wilson’s, were seen running on the ground amongst

the bushes.


In the Zoological Park a Baltimore Oriole was singing lustily

in some shrubs, and I was told it nested there, and Song

Sparrows were quite abundant, running on the ground much

in the same Avay as our Hedge Sparrows ( Accentor) do. On one

occasion I saw a beautiful male American Redstart (Setojrfiaga

ruticilla), which, except that it has red in its tail does not remind one

of a European Redstart at all; and I also saw a big Kingfisher (Ceryle

torquata ) flying over me. Besides the birds, grey squirrels were

numerous, and so tame as to feed from the hand of the children. Little

Chipmunks {Tamins striatus) were running on the ground in the wooded

parts, and seemed to make their homes in the hollow tree-roots.



