424 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



Maples offer convenient nesting places not only in the wilder- 

 ness but in village streets and public parks. Here in the woods the 

 Robin and other thrushes frequently lodge their nests on a maple's 

 stout limbs. The Alder Flycatcher and the Wood Pewee choose 

 its bare forks, and the Crested Flycatcher finds high natural cavi- 

 ties in aged trunks as suitable places to rear its broods. The Cedar 

 Waxwing and Scarlet Tanager construct nests in the maple's shady 

 canopy, and Vireos very commonly use a drooping fork in the 

 lower outer twigs as a support for their pendent homes. As a 

 foraging place and as a song station, the value of the maple is in- 

 estimable, for I find it to be patronized by a large proportion of the 

 song and insectivorous birds of any neighborhood. 



In its sapling stage, as a part of the aspen-fire cherry-birch asso- 

 ciation, there are found with the sugar maple the red maple (Acer 

 rubrum), the striped maple or moosewood (Acer pennsylvaniciim) 

 and the mountain maple (Acer spicatum). These have much the 

 same characteristics in burns and clearings, and all are favorites 

 with birds. The Olive-backed Thrush nests in the upright crotches 

 of a maple more often than elsewhere; and as a gleaning ground 

 and quiet retreat for rest the young maple is probably of greater 

 service than any other tree in its community. 



The Beech and the Birds. The beech grows with a uniform 

 cylindrical stem, and where the conifers have been cut away it 

 spreads a spacious leaf canopy. Frequently, beeches equal the 

 maples in height, especially along old sandy stream beds, although 

 as a rule the maples surpass the beeches in bulk of trunk and ex- 

 tent of lateral branches. Both show the effect of early growth in 

 close company with other trees, by their tall unbranched trunks and 

 an abrupt spreading at the top, while the birches begin to send out 

 short lateral branches farther down on the trunk and produce a 

 spindle-shaped tapering mass of foliage. The fruit of the beech is 

 a small bur containing two triangular nuts that ripen in late sum- 

 mer. The fruit clings to the stem after ripening, and often remains 

 on the tree as an available food supply for animals during the 

 winter. 



For the purposes of the birds the beech ranks next to the sugar 

 maple in value. The Robin, Tanager, Grosbeak and other singers 

 avail themselves of its high twigs for their morning and evening 

 recitals. The Kinglets, Chickadees, and Nuthatches glean from its 

 trunk and branches for their insect fare ; Warblers hunt for insects 

 amid its foliage; the Red-eyed Vireo sings as it works among the 

 leaves, and the Cedar Waxwing nests in a fork of its branches. 

 In winter the Blue Jay harvests its food from its laden twigs, and 

 woodpeckers drill through its bark for hidden beetles and larvae. 

 As the maple is perhaps the more popular with the birds in the 

 spring, so the beech is preferred in the fall because of its store of 

 ripening fruit. The beech thus supplements the maple, and its 

 flower buds are also a spring dainty to the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 



