18 BULLETIN 396^ U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



red-headed woodpecker, 1 ; flicker, 2 ; chimney swift, 1 ; ruby -throated 

 hummingbird, 1 ; kingbird, 1 ; crested flycatcher, 2 ; wood pewee, 2 ; 

 alder flycatcher, 1; blue jay, 3; cowbird, 1; meadowlark, 1; orchard 

 oriole, 2 ; Baltimore oriole, 1 ; bronzed grackle, 3 ; goldfinch, 1 ; chip- 

 ping sparrow, 1; field sparrow, 1; towhee, 1; cardinal, 2; indigo 

 bunting, 1; Maryland yellow-throat, 1; catbird, 3; brown thrasher, 

 3 ; house wren, 8 ; tufted titmouse, 1 ; Carolina chickadee, 1 ; southern 

 robin, 7 ; bluebird, 1. Mr. Eidgway's experience with some of these 

 birds in their relations to their fellows may be stated in his own 

 words. 



The red-headed woodpecker, although one of our most strikingly handsome 

 birds, and in many ways a most interesting one, is, unfortunately, extremely 

 selfish and aggressive. Our single pair prevented any other woodpeckers (the 

 downy, hairy, and red-bellied) from nesting in any of the boxes, drove two pairs 

 of flickers and one pair of crested flycatchers from boxes which they had 

 chosen, and even attacked the purple martins whenever they alighted on the 

 box put up, for them. * * * The house wren is equally tyrannical, and no 

 other small bird can nest in his vicinity. Several pairs of Carolina chicka- 

 dees and tufted titmice, and a pair of Bewick's wrens that had been w^ith us 

 all winter, would have nested in boxes near the house but for the rascally 

 house wrens, who, though possessing boxes of their own, drove the other birds 

 away.^ 



His most interesting experiences, however, were with the blue 

 jays and the grackles. The blue jays were very troublesome, de- 

 stroying fully 90 per cent of the eggs in the first-built nests and 

 even killing and partly devouring half -grown young of the mourn- 

 ing dove. It became necessary to "discourage" the blue jays and 

 the grackles to the extent of 15 pairs of the former and some 50 

 pairs of the latter before the smaller birds had a fair chance for 

 existence. Parenthetically it may be remarked that on the grounds 

 of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C, the grackles 

 have been known to feed upon newly hatched English sparrows, 

 while the young of the grackles, and to even a greater extent of the 

 English sparrows, also, similarly suffer from attentions of fish crows. 

 Quite different from Mr. Ridgway's experience with house wrens 

 is that of Mr. Gilbert H. GrosA'enor, at his summer home. Wild 

 Acres, in Maryland, a few miles from Washington, D. C. Here, as 

 a result of several years' endeavors, he has a colony of house wrens 

 which in 1915 numbered 19 pairs, all in boxes put up for them in the 

 immediate neighborhood of the house, and yet other birds also were 

 numerous, and in the 5 acres surrounding the house there nested, in 

 1915, the following additional pairs: Flicker, 3; southern robin, 8; 

 catbird, 3; bluebird, 3; orchard oriole, 2; yellow warbler, 1; brown 

 thrasher, 1 ; chipping sparrow, 3 ; phcebe, 2 ; barn swallow, 1 ; indigo 



1 Ridgway, Robert, Bird-Life in Southern Illinois. Bird-Lore. XVII, 1-7, 91-103, 

 Jan. -April, 1915. 



