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BIRDS OF THE BOTANICAL GARDEN 
IV. NESTING—I1919 
The nesting season for most birds has been dry this year, with 
only one or two violent storms, and the feathered creatures have 
correspondingly prospered. It is no uncommon sight to see 
several pairs of thrashers and grosbeaks feeding their young in 
the Garden. Near the rubblestone bridge there were nests of 
redstart, Maryland yellow-throat, yellow warbler, red-eyed 
vireo, song sparrow, phoebe, robin, catbird, red-winged black- 
bird, flicker, and the usually more retiring nuthatch. The nest 
of the last was deep in a natural pocket of the smaller tulip-tree 
that stands next the twin tulips which sentinel the walk to the 
east and are background for many photographs. 
In this vicinity also was the chosen home of the wood ducks 
and black duck, and they as well fared better than usual, one 
rearing eleven young, a second eight, and another two. While 
these families were showing off in the lily pool, a white-fronted 
goose from the Zodlogical Park came up the river for company. 
Farther north on the river-walk a ruby-throated hummingbird 
hung her cradle and sang her lullabies as the shifting winds swung 
the slender branch that near its very tip bore this precious beauty 
and her little ones. This nest looks like a knot in shape, but it 
is not the color of one, nor is it always covered with lichens. 
Its diminutive size would alone make it inconspicuous, but, once 
directed, the eye has no trouble in finding it. When the mother 
bird returned to the nest she would, if she discovered observers, 
hover repeatedly about a leaf as if to distract attention, and then 
dive suddenly into the nest. A woodpecker’s hole served to 
shelter a screech owl. It was well to the top of the largest syca- 
more tree, just above the bridge at the north end of the Garden. 
Oriole, veery, and wood thrush nests were plentiful, and scarlet 
tanager and meadowlark remained through the nesting season. 
After a winter that gave it Acadian owl, hermit thrush, brown 
thrasher, sapsucker, grackle, and half a dozen fox sparrows 
(a one-legged bird among them) as “permanent residents,” 
the Botanical Garden may well be proud of its showing. 
Frep F, HOUGHTON. 
