Relation of Summer Birds to Western Adirondack Forest 423 



among the birches." His accompanying list enumerates 38 species of 

 birds that feed on birch plant lice ; and Forbush declares that un- 

 doubtedly the plant lice would considerably reduce the annual crop 

 of birch wood and lumber were it not for the way in which their 

 increase is checked by birds. 



The following is a group of birds that I have noted as utilizing 

 birches either as situations for nests or as the source of materials 

 for their construction. The group may be designated as the birch- 

 bark society, and is as follows : Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown 

 Creeper, Blue-headed Vireo, Pine Siskin, Redstart, Chickadee, 

 White-breasted Nuthatch, the Bay-breasted, Parula, Myrtle, Mag- 

 nolia, Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green Warblers, 

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Red-tailed Hawk, 

 Wood Thrush, Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos, Olive-backed Thrush, 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk and Least Flycatcher. Birch saplings seem 

 to be chosen in preference to any other kind of young tree as nesting 

 places, especially by the Goldfinch, Cedar Waxwing and Olive- 

 backed Thrush. 



The Maple and the Birds. The sugar maple {Acer saccharum) 

 is intimately associated with the birch and the beech, these together 

 with the aspen, comprising the bulk of the Adirondack deciduous 

 woods. Under ordinary conditions the maple grows tall and com- 

 manding, overtopping the other hardwoods and filling its allotted 

 space with a spreading canopy of foliage. As a result of the exten- 

 sive lumbering operations of the past, in which the conifers were 

 removed, there are large areas where towering maples flourish. The 

 small paired and winged fruits are developed in early spring, and are 

 fine food for certain birds at a time when other vegetable fare is not 

 yet available, as in the case of some species while they are moving 

 northward, or are arriving in the early days of spring at their 

 northern nesting habitat. The sugar maple does not rank with 

 the white birch, however, since its seeds are produced at a time 

 when such food is insignificant compared with the wealth of insect 

 life then available ; nor is the maple resorted to as much as the 

 birch. The Rose-breasted Grosbeak, one of the finest songsters of 

 the springtime and early summer, lives almost exclusively in the 

 upper story of the maple and associated deciduous trees, and it then 

 feeds extensively on the unfolding flower buds. Regarding this 

 habit of the Grosbeak, we are justified in assuming that it is merely 

 an agency by which the balance of nature is maintained, and hence 

 the bird is not to be regarded as an injurious influence in the maple's 

 life history. Our garden and shade trees are improved by culling 

 the fruit buds earlv in the season so that the remainder may attain 

 more perfect development in the fruiting period. The procedure 

 is probably equally beneficial to forest trees, as the birds that feed 

 upon their flower buds doubtless exert a " thinning out " influence 

 that results in the production of more energetic seeds. The Purple 

 Finch also eats maple blossoms frequently. 



