Maryland Birds. 101 



MARYLAND BIRDS. 



BY REV. J. H. LANGILLE. 



Having spent the entire spring and the summer thus far, 

 in riding over Montgomery county, Maryland, — the county 

 just north of the District of Columbia, — I have had an ad- 

 mirable opportunity for the study of the common land birds 

 of this locality. Then, too, as my work is in connection with 

 the public schools, in which there are not a few who are 

 now working up to the delights of ornithology, I get many 

 valuable notes beyond my own observations. 



To begin with the thrushes, the Wood Thrush, the only 

 thrush residing here excepting the Robin and Bluebird, is 

 everywhere abundant. The magnificent white- oak forests 

 of our county, with their mixture of great tulip trees and 

 undergrowth of dogwood, not to speak of the many springs 

 and running streams in these parts, afford an agreeable hab- 

 itat for this arboreal species. Reaching us in the last days 

 of April, it immediately greets us with its suggestive and 

 flute-like melody, everywhere awakening the sweetest wood- 

 land echoes, which melody continues to the end of July. It 

 is known here by the people as the "wood robin." 



When we came here, seventeen years ago, the Robin was 

 being slaughtered in the spring and fall migrations for food. 

 Of course this was very bad economy, when ten cents' worth 

 of beef would make as much in the pot as a whole dozen of 

 these useful birds ; but little was thought and less known of 

 the birds here in those days. Then but few Robins re- 

 mained here to breed, and those appeared so scared that 

 one seldom heard the sweet and cheerful warble of that spe- 

 cies, so characteristic of our more northern climes. Four 

 years ago last winter we succeeded in getting a law passed 

 protecting the Robin throughout the year, and every sum- 



