INTRODUCTION 



There are many kinds of birds that frequent golf courses. Some are essen- 

 tially the same from coast to coast and from Maine to Florida. Others are 

 restricted to the East or to the West or to the North or to the South. One will 

 not see Ground Doves and jMockingbirds on our northern courses, nor Bobo- 

 links and Cardinals in California, nor Lark Sparrows and Dickcissels in New 

 England; but everj'where there are Robins and Bluebirds, Meadowlarks and 

 Horned Larks, Vesper and Savanna Sparrows, Mourning Doves and Killdeers. 

 They are not always identically the same varieties, but to all intents and pur- 

 poses they are the same blithe songsters, pleasing our eyes with their grace and 

 beauty and cheering our souls with their melodies. The methods which one 

 would use in New York or New England to increase their numbers are the same 

 as he would use in Florida or in California, depending on local conditions of 

 food, water and shelter. 



Some species find food on the green and nesting places in the rough — open 

 country birds like the Killdeer, the Larks or the Vesper Sparrows. To them the 

 abundant insect-life or the seeds of the weeds provide sufficient food and the 

 tangled grass of the rough safe nesting places, if enemies are not too numerous. 

 Little has to be done to increase their numbers except to give them protection 

 from careless caddies and use care in cutting around the nests. The addition of 

 drinking and bathing places to those links which have no water hazards will 

 serve to increase their numbers. 



Another group of birds find much of their food on or over the green, but 

 depend for nesting sites upon trees or bushes or bird-houses. This group in- 

 cludes such familiar birds as the Robin, the Bluebird, the Crackle, the Flicker, 

 the Purple Martin, the Tree Swallow, and the Kingbird which are so often 

 seen about the tees. It should also include the Cardinals and Mockingbirds in 

 the South, the Catbirds and Thrashers in the North, the Blue Jays, the 

 Thrushes, the Orioles, the Wrens, the Chickadees, the Woodpeckers and many 

 others if shrubbery is provided about the Club-house or the outer borders of 

 the rough. These birds, numbering among them some of our most attractive 

 songbirds, can be very materially increased by a well-defined feeding and 

 planting plan which will provide them with food and nesting places. The erect- 

 ing of nesting boxes for the hole-nesting species; and the addition of bathing 

 and drinking places is necessary on many golf courses. The creation of a feel- 

 ing of security over all the course by decreasing the natural enemies of birds, 

 and forbidding all guns and slingshots is highly desirable. It is remarkable what 



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