30 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



ing birds. The success attained by individuals will be measured by the 

 amount of intensive protection accorded. Cats also must be dealt with 

 relentlessly. No sensible person will expect to reform this animal instant- 

 ly by an unkind word, cuff or severer punishment after considering that its 

 impulses are those of countless ages and its diet of birds date back almost 

 to the beginning of time. 



Nesting boxes with openings of one and one-half inches and upward 

 will ever remain the legitimate prey of the house sparrow. I have found 

 it expedient to place many of these boxes in low down and convenient 

 places for the sparrows' own use. A little observation soon records the 

 home life of each and when the female bird has been brooding her eggs 

 for two days, no disturbance will induce her to leave. This is the logical 

 time to act ; the male usually nonchalantly taking the place of the defunct 

 female within half an hour, immediately meeting the same fate. The box 

 is then cleaned out ready for the next victim. At one time I took six 

 males before the wily female fell a victim. The house sparrow is per- 

 sistent, adopting abandoned eggs or young with frequence and mating 

 alternately time and again as one or the other falls a victim. This method 

 of duping them has helped to relieve the martin colony from their un- 

 welcome attentions and never more than one or two birds a season have 

 preferred the disputed martin house to an undisputed home of their own. 



Now for a brief reference to those birds affected by the spread of civili- 

 zation who find sufficient food in the changed country but no suitable sites 

 to build their nests. The ever thinning ranks of woodlands and forest, 

 the scrupulous mandates of civilization to tidy up, automatically and 

 unconsciously deprive them of safe nesting sites. The towhee, catbird, 

 thrushes, brown thrashers, grosbeak, tanager, and others must still build 

 in brushwood, undergrowth and tangle, and, their existence depends on the 

 presence of shrub and tree growth. Think of a region having become 

 silent for the want of a brushpile ; think of the same region enriched .by 

 the incomparable song of the brown thrasher, simply because of the pres- 

 ence of a brush pile. 



While the woodlands are vanishing, the bird population is also vanish- 

 ing in proportion. Therefore, one should make necessary provisions to 

 offer them a substitute. Here in the City of Rockford, with a population 

 of 80,000, we listened to the flute-like notes of the wood-thrush but six 

 blocks removed from the busiest corner of the city. A year later another 

 woodthrush cast her lot with the dwellers of the "Forest City" and last 

 year no less than eight pairs of these thrushes resided in various parts of 

 the city, the initial bird still holding forth at its old site. 



Sinnissippi Park in Rockford covers 124 acres. Of these 60 acres are 

 in fine timber, but the early management fell into unsympathetic hands. 

 In consequence it was robbed of much of its natural beauty by denuding 

 it of its undergrowth. It no longer knew the song of the brown thrasher, 

 the mocking bird of the north. How eagerly the few initial brush heaps, 

 composed of fallen twigs and limbs and disposed of in out of the way 

 places, found ready takers. Again the carols of ecstacy rang forth from 

 liquid throats. The brown thrasher had accepted the substitute. Black 

 Hawk Park, 80 acres, presenting the typical Illinois scenery, is adding an- 

 nually to its abundant bird population. Nests of rose-breasted grosbeak, 



